Dr Daniel Hale Williams Research Paper

Regardless of race, gender, or religion, victory in the face of adversity can be used as a source of inspiration. While some try to emulate the success of others, some already have the internal drive to achieve more than what their current circumstances make feasible. The story of Dr. Daniel Hale Williams is one of a child raised amongst seven siblings designated as a shoemaker’s apprentice who dreamt of more. (Spark Media, 2003) Daniel Hale Williams III was the fifth born to a family of seven children on January 18, 1856, in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania. Born to an activist, Williams’ father, a barber, was also in the Equal Rights League, an organization committed to the fair treatment of African Americans. Tragedy, struck early in the Williams’ family lives, however, when Williams’ father passed away when he was at the age of ten. From there Williams’ mother was forced to repeatedly move with her children, until Williams was sent to Baltimore, Maryland, to live with friends. During his time of separation from his family, Williams’ apprenticed as a shoemaker for a source of livelihood. Eventually, Williams rejoined his family in Illinois to follow in his father’s footsteps. His apprenticeship as a

By age twenty, Williams began an apprenticeship with renowned Union army surgeon Henry Palmer. By 1891, Williams had a successful private medical practice, becoming the first African American doctor to be officially named the physician of the city’s street railway system’s workers. He was also a teaching physician of his alma mater, Chicago Medical College. However, it was on May 4, 1891, Dr. Williams continued his father’s legacy of furthering equal rights by opening the first interracial hospital that doubled as a teaching hospital for African American female nurses. Two years later, Williams would accomplish a career landmark. (A&E Television