Today In Black History
Black Facts You Should Know!
Issue #430 Black History Tuesday, December 5, 2023
Welcome to this Today in Black History post. Black History IS American History, no matter how hard some people try to erase our history and contributions.
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Today’s Black WOW!
Today’s Black History WOW! Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (January 18, 1856 -August 4, 1931)
“A people who don’t make provision for their own sick and suffering are not worthy of civilization.”
–Daniel Hale Williams
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams founded the first Black-owned hospital in America in 1891 and performed the first successful open heart surgery in the world in 1893.
After completing medical school, Dr. Williams went into private practice in an integrated neighborhood on Chicago's south side. He soon began teaching anatomy at Chicago Medical College and served as surgeon to the City Railway Company. In 1889, the governor of Illinois appointed him to the state's board of health.
He opened Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses on May 4, 1891, the country's first interracial hospital and nursing school.
One hot summer night in 1893, a young white Chicagoan named James Cornish was stabbed in the chest and rushed to Provident. When Cornish started to go into shock, Williams suspected a deeper wound near the heart. He asked six doctors (four white, two black) to observe while he operated.
With the heart beating and transfusion impossible, Williams rinsed the wound with salt solution, held the edges of the palpitating wound with forceps, and sewed them together. Just 51 days after his apparently lethal wound, James Cornish walked out of the hospital. He lived for over 20 years after the surgery. The landmark operation was hailed in the press.
In 1894, Dr. Williams became chief surgeon of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, D.C., the most prestigious medical post available to African Americans at that time.
In 1895, he helped to organize the National Medical Association for Black professionals, who were barred from the American Medical Association. In 1913, he became the first African American to be inducted into the American College of Surgeons.
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams died in 1931.
Today’s Black History
- In 1888, Sarah Gorman was the first woman appointed by the AME Church to serve as a missionary to any foreign country.
- In 1935, educator and civil rights activist Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, founded the National Council of Negro Women.
- In 1946, President Harry S Truman created the Committee on Civil Rights. Black attorneys Sadie T.M. Alexander, a former National President of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., and Channing H. Tobias were appointed members of the Committee.
- In 1947, heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis beat Jersey Joe Walcott in 15 rounds during the first televised professional boxing match.
- In 1955, the Montgomery Improvement Association was founded by Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Edgar Nixon.
- In 1957, New York City became the first city to establish laws forbidding discrimination in housing based on race or religion when it passed the Fair Housing Practices Law.
- In 2008, former NFL star O.J. Simpson was sentenced to 33 years in prison for kidnapping and armed robbery.
Let’s discuss these facts in our community on Substack Notes.
The first essay I wrote (3rd grade, 1972) was on Dr. Williams!