Black Doctor

A biography of the first credentialed African American physician in the United States, a vital nineteenth-century abolitionist and statesman.

The heart of the whites must be changed, thoroughly, entirely, permanently changed . . . and men, colored men, must go to work to produce that conviction—of the eternal equality of the Human Race—which is the first principle of good government—of Bible politics. This must be done, but how?

Dr. James McCune Smith spent his life seeking the answer to this question. Born to a single Black mother, a slave who emancipated herself from her abusive owner—James’s white father—in New York City, he grew up impoverished in the dangerous Five Points neighborhood. Educated in a Quaker school, the color of his skin prevented him from advancing his studies and securing work in any manual or office trades. Fortunately, James’s pastor recognized his intelligence and skills, raising funds to send him to Scotland’s University of Glasgow where he earned multiple degrees and returned to New York as an accredited medical doctor.

While James was overseas, America’s political and societal divisions over slavery intensified. Abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison believed the northern and southern states should separate while John Brown sought violent means to free the slaves. Neither addressed the future of Black people across the nation, who wanted equal rights and opportunities in society. James chose to speak for a true united nation strengthened by its diversity, chairing conventions and writing columns for Frederick Douglass’s paper about freedom beyond ending slavery in the years leading up to and during the Civil War.

Black Doctor is the story of James McCune Smith, a compassionate doctor and activist who championed a humane citizenry and a greater America.