Tufts professor shows how AMA undermined Black doctors

Before the Civil War, and for many decades after, Black Americans who wanted to get a medical degree faced severe discrimination, and often had to travel abroad for their education. After the Civil War, multiple Black medical schools were founded between 1868 and 1904, dramatically increasing the number of Black medical graduates.

Educational institutions like the University Medical School, Meharry Medical College, Leonard Medical School, and numerous others were established across the United States, but the American Medical Association (AMA) made it hard for Black physicians to survive by excluding most of them from its membership and official directories.

By 1906, the AMA’s Physician Professional Data, for example, listed only 1.8% of all physicians in the United States as African Amer