Charles R. Drew Biography

Charles R. Drew overcame segregation and racism in his journey becoming the world's first African American on the American Board of Surgery and invention of blood banks. He was born in 1904 in Washington, D.C. He graduated Dunbar High School in 1922, then with his awarded scholarship from athletics he attended Amherst College in Massachusetts, and graduated with a bachelor of arts. He became interested in medicine during his undergraduate studies, so he saved money for two years working as an athletic director and biology and chemistry instructor at Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. His medical school choices were extremely limited due to segregation. He was one of the few African Americans to be accepted into Harvard, however, they wanted

From 1940 to 1941, he received his Doctorate in Medical Science from Columbia University for his research and dissertation on blood banking. He became a Medical supervisor for the Blood for Britain project organized by the the Blood Transfusion Betterment Association in New York. He became the assistant director of the first American Red Cross Plasma Bank at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, as well as the assistant director of Blood Procurement for the National Research Council, so he was in charge of blood used by the U.S. Army and Navy. He became the professor and Head of the Department of Surgery at Howard University, the chief surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital, and was certified as an examiner for the American Board of Surgery. During World War II, his blood transfusions saved thousands of wounded warriors. With all his outstanding awards and achievements, the U.S. armed forces still asked him to resign after his standup on their segregated blood policy. Drew R. Charles was an exceptional leader in his time and created a system to save lives through blood banks. Through his life he was forced to deal with racism but regardless he prevailed and achieved far more than was thought