Black History Month is not just a month where we uplift Black voices; it is an opportunity to re-evaluate how we actively support our Black members year-round. To advance the anatomical sciences, we are responsible for creating more equitable, diverse, and inclusive spaces. Part of that is celebrating pioneers in anatomy who have yet to be at the forefront of conversations historically. Below are six anatomists who have shaped the discipline into the study and practice it is today.
Dr. James McCune Smith
Born enslaved in New York City to Lavinia Smith, Dr. James McCune Smith was the first African American to hold a medical degree (University of Glasgow, 1837, after being denied admission to U.S. medical schools), own and run a U.S. pharmacy, and publish articles in U.S. medical journals. Smith leveraged his medical training and statistical studies in works such as his 1843 lecture series, “Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Races,” to counter racial stereotypes and the pseudoscience of phrenology. A voracious writer and intellectual, Dr. McCune Smith’s essays were published in a 2007 anthology, including his introduction to Frederick Douglass’ autobiography. The University of Glasgow celebrates him with an annual lecture and the James McCune Smith Learning Hub, built and named in his honor in 2021.
Dr. Alexander T. Augusta
Alexander T. Augusta attended Medical College at the University of Toronto and became head of Toronto City Hospital. During the Civil War, he joined the Union Army as its first African American physician and became its highest-ranking Black officer. In 1863, he was appointed head of Freedmen’s Hospital in D.C., making him the nation's first African American hospital administrator. In 1868, he became the country’s first Black professor of medicine at the Medical College at Howard University, where he taught Practical Anatomy, Descriptive and Surgical Anatomy, and Descriptive Microscopical and Surgical Anatomy. Dr. Augusta was the first African American officer buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Dr. Roscoe Lewis McKinney
Initially an instructor of zoology, Dr. Roscoe Lewis McKinney was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to attend the University of Chicago, where he developed an interest in tissue cultures and became the first African American to earn a Ph.D. in Anatomy in 1930. When Dr. McKinney could not find a teaching post at white institutions, he became a professor of anatomy and head of the department at Howard University. Through anatomy, Dr. McKinney explored the world—in Iraq as a Fulbright Fellow, in India at the request of the U.S. Department of State, and in Vietnam as a consultant to the University of Saigon. He founded the first tissue-culture lab in the D.C. Metro region and was a member of both AAA and AAAS.
Dr. Burt Green Wilder
Burt Green Wilder, M.D., our association’s fifth President (1897-1899), was commissioned as a surgeon in the 55th Massachusetts all-Black regiment during the Civil War. Inspired by his comrades, he advocated for African American civil rights and spoke at the first conference of what became the NAACP. He initiated anonymous studies, unusual at the time, to prove no discernable difference in brain size based on race or sex. Today, the Wilder Brain Collection, including his own, resides at Cornell University, where he was an original faculty member, founded the Department of Anatomy, and taught for more than 40 years. His writings are collected in “Recollections of a Civil War Medical Cadet,” published in 2017.
Dr. William Montague Cobb
Recognized as the principal historian of African Americans in medicine, W. Montague Cobb, M.D., Ph.D., used science to debunk racist ideas and advance social and medical integration. An advocate, researcher, and educator, he lobbied for Medicare/Medicaid. He chaired the Department of Anatomy at Howard University, where a research lab is named in his honor, housing 700 skeletons and 900 anatomical records of African Americans he began collecting and studying in 1932. A true multi-hyphenate, he was Howard’s first Distinguished Professor in 1969, editor of the Journal of the National Medical Association for 28 years, as well as president of the NMA, NAACP, and American Association of Physical Anthropologists. He received numerous honors, including the AAAS Fellowship in 1938 and AAA’s Henry Gray Scientific Achievement Award in 1980. AAA renamed an early-career investigator award to the W.M. Cobb Award in Morphological Sciences in his honor in 2019.
To create a more equitable environment where Black and minority anatomical scientists, students, researchers, and educators feel supported and valued within our organization, we offer a variety of programs and awards, such as:
- Anatomy Scholars Program
- EUReka EDI Undergraduate Research Award
- Dissertation Completion Award
- The Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award
Please visit our awards page to learn more about these programs and awards.