ABOUT MCSC

James McCune Smith was born a slave on April 18th, 1813. He was the son of Samuel Smith, who was a white merchant slave owner,  and Lavina Smith who was  a slave woman from South Carolina. Smith would often say he is the “son of a self-emancipated bondswoman” and was freed at the age of 14 following the passage of the Emancipation Act in New York on July 14, 1827. Despite emancipation, he remained fearful that slave hunters would recapture him and return him into slavery.

 

He graduated with honors from the African Free School located on Mulberry Street in New York City. The school was founded in 1785 as a philanthropic organization by white abolitionists   to show that blacks can compete intellectually as well as whites.  He worked as a blacksmith while studying Latin and Greek at night in preparation for college.

 

McCune did well in school but was denied admission to Columbia University simply because of his race. He was accepted at the University of Glasgow where he obtained a BA in 1835, a Masters in 1836 and an MD degree,  graduating in 1837 at the top of his class. He submitted his thesis to the faculty and earned both honors and praise. 

 

After graduating from medical school, he traveled to Paris to gain additional clinical experience alongside some of the renowned professionals in Europe.  He returned to New York City in 1839 and established the first black medical practice along with a pharmacy to serve all people. Unlike his white peers and the prevailing norms of the time, McCune chose the path of moral integrity by providing care for all individuals in need, without segregating healthcare based on race. 

 

He also established an evening school dedicated to educating individuals of all racial backgrounds. It was not until 1847, ten years after Smith, that James Peck graduated from Rush Medical College and became the first black man to receive an American medical degree and   1864 when Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black female physician, with a medical degree  from New England Female Medical College which subsequently merged with Boston University. 

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Smith’s general and surgical practice was not limited to black patients but to all in need. Medical practice in those days consisted of “bleeding, cupping, leeching” and use of herbs for medicinal purposes. He practiced the accepted standards of his time. Despite his achievements, he was not accepted for membership in the New York medical associations or the American Medical Association.

 

James McCune Smith never hesitated to rise to the defense of black people and their  rights as  human beings and closely collaborated with Frederick Douglas. He established the National Council for Colored People in 1853. Frederick Douglas called Smith “the single most important influence on his life” .

 

Smith practiced social justice and wrote against the Supreme Court’s decision in the Dred Scott case denying black individuals’ citizenship and their rights to be free.  When Thomas Jefferson wrote in “Notes on the State of Virginia” that “blacks, whether originally a distinct race or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind”, Smith proved him wrong. Jefferson would solidify his views on race when , in speaking to the black inventor Benjamin Banneker, he  indicated that “ Nobody wishes more than I do to see such proofs as you exhibit, that nature has given to our black brethren, talents equal to those of the other colors of men, and that the appearance of a want of them is owing merely to the degraded condition of their existence, both in Africa and America”.

 

James McCune Smith would debunk Jefferson’s ideas on race and mental differences and made his arguments to counter the predominant belief that “free blacks might languish without filial protection from white slave owners”. Smith argued that unfavorable social circumstances were to blame for existing differences in racial achievements and not intellectual capacity. Smith was fluent in French, Spanish, German, Greek, Latin, Hebrew and Italian.  

 

Smith was the first black to publish case series and case reports and used statistics in his medical publications to disprove accepted dogma. He was not allowed to present his medical findings to the New York Medical and Surgical Society and as such had another white physician present his findings. His case series was published in the New York Journal of Medicine and consisted of five patients who experienced cessation of menses with the use of opium. He published his findings because they were contrary to what had been written and accepted in the textbooks. He advocated for controlled comparison in medical research.

 

Using statistical methods, Smith proved that the 1840 census was racially biased. He authored more than 100 articles in ethnology, geography, and medicine.  In 1854, he was elected to membership in the American Geographical Society in New York and gave an address on how to improve census taking methods. At the time of his election to that society, an article in the newspaper, Provincial Freeman, called him “A colored savant”. 

 

James McCune Smith was married in 1842 to Malvina Barnett (1825-1891) and had six children but only four of his children survived.  He loved caring for children and considered it a “holy trust” having his own children look up to him for “support, discipline and guidance”. He had confidence in the importance of the family unit and the significance of providing guidance and support to the youth. 

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Smith was appointed physician to the Colored Orphan Asylum on Fifth Avenue and 44th street in New York City. The asylum was founded in 1836 to help black children in need only to be destroyed on July 13, 1863, by a white mob during the Draft Riots in New York City. He overcame adversity well and remained undeterred in what he had to do in life. When the streetcar company denied him access to public transportation because of his race, he decided to walk 6-7 miles to continue his work at the Colored Orphan Asylum. 

 

James McCune Smith suffered from congestive heart failure and as such could not practice much after 1863. On November 17, 1865, Dr Smith died at his home in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn where he lived with his family. He was buried at the Cypress Hill Cemetery. 

 

James McCune Smith was a pioneering figure who cared for the sick regardless of their racial or religious background. He fought for basic human dignity and his life story demonstrates the detrimental effects of racism on black lives. The ripples of that practice are still being felt today.  He was a trailblazer who held the belief that race was not a biological phenomenon but, instead, a social fabrication. While he is primarily recognized among black historians for his abolitionist work, those in the field of medicine have largely overlooked and almost erased his legacy.

 

One can only aspire that  this collective forgetfulness regarding race will eventually be corrected, and history will recognize James McCune Smith in the manner he deserves- as the first  Black  American doctor in the United States, a highly productive author, a passionate abolitionist dedicated to the cause of social justice, and a devout servant of God who played a pivotal role in making the abolition of slavery a reality. The accomplishments of contemporary black physicians can largely be attributed to the persistence and sacrifices first set in motion by James McCune Smith. He not only made significant contributions to the medical field in the presence of insurmountable odds but also tirelessly fought for social justice, a legacy that certainly warrants recognition and commemoration.