Medicine: Negro Fellow

There are almost 4,000 Negro doctors in the U. S. About 1,500 of them belong to the “Race’s” National Medical Association, and a somewhat lesser number to the all-inclusive American Medical Association. But not one of them belongs to the exclusive American College of Physiciansor, until last week, to the equally exclusive, but more progressive, American College of Surgeons. By his election to fellowship Dr. Louis Tompkins Wright of Manhattan’s Harlem becomes the nation’s No. 1 Negro Surgeon.

Dr. Wright’s distinction as a surgeon lies in his handling of fractured skulls, of which hurly-burly Harlem has supplied him with more than 1,000. His special duty as a fellow of the College of Surgeons will be to regiment Negro doctors behind the College’s policy of fostering insurance policies to pay hospital bills. As with every intelligent Negro, genetics is an immediate personal concern to Dr. Wright. His complexion is light brown. Mrs. Wright, a onetime school-teacher whose mother was German, has all the appearance of a white. With keen intellectualcuriosity they awaited the births of their two children. Jane, 14, is distinctly brown. Barbara, 13, looks like a little white girl. The children attend the swank, progressive Ethical Culture School.