Medicine: The Doctorless Negro

Secretary of the Interior Hubert Work, himself a physician and former President of the American Medical Association, calls attention to the alarming lack of facilities for the training of Negro doctors, dentists, nurses. There is a white physician to every 553 white persons in the United States, but only one colored doctor to every 3,194 negroes. As to dentists, the ratios are even worse: white, 1 to 2,070; Negro, 1 to 20,500. There are but two negro medical schools in the country—that of Howard University at Washington, which also has departments of dentistry and pharmacy, and the Meharry Medical College, Nashville. Both have improved rapidly and are ranked as “Class A”institutions; but, for quantity production, they are painfully inadequate. Twice as many candidates as are admitted apply annually. The Freedmen’s Hospital maintains a training school for nurses, but is vastly overtaxed. This hospital and Howard University are supported by the Government under the Interior Department. There are many white medical schools open to the Negroes, but only about a dozen graduate from them each year. “Only Government action can meet the situation,” says Dr. Work.