Drew, Dr. Charles R. 1904-1950

DREW, DR. CHARLES R. 1904-1950

Blood researcher whose work saved livesin world war ii

Blood-Transfusion Specialist

The story of the career of the African American surgeon Charles R. Drew illustrates the tragic loss of human potential in a society afflicted with racism. While his pioneering work in blood research was responsible for saving countless lives during World War II, he was unheralded in his day and died unnoticed.

A Medical Pioneer

Charles Drew was born 3 June 1904 in his grandmother's house in Washington, D.C. His father was a carpet layer, the only African American in the Carpet and Tile Layers Union. His mother, a graduate of Howard University's Miner Normal School in Washington, was a homemaker. His parents encouraged their five children to aim high and to take their studies seriously. Drew grew up in a comfortable home filled with books and classical music in the ethnically mixed neighborhood known as Foggy Bottom. After his graduation from Amherst College in 1926, he entered McGill Medical College in Montreal, Canada. At the age of twenty-nine he received his M.D. and Master of Surgery degrees from McGill and was honored with the Williams Prize, given annually to the top five men in the class. In 1939, Drew joined the faculty of Howard University Medical School, one of the two black medical schools in the United States. Awarded a General Education Board fellowship to Columbia University Medical School, he worked in blood research. As a second world war loomed in Europe, Drew was aware of how crucial blood would be to treat the wounded, but in most cases blood was transfused from one person to another. Drew studied plasma, the yellowish liquid in blood, and solved the problem of storage and transfusion through blood-bank programs. In recognition of his contribution Columbia University awarded him the degree of Doctor of Medical Science. Drew was the first African American doctor to earn this degree.

Director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank

At the outbreak of World War II Drew received a stunning call from his former professor of anatomy at McGill. Dr. John Beattie, director of the research laboratories of the Royal College of Surgeons, requested "five thousand ampules of dried plasma for transfusion." Drew knew this amount of dried blood did not exist, but he set to work to produce it. By September 1940 he headed the "Blood for Britain" project. The following year he became the director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank and the assistant director of blood procurement for the National Research Council. At the time, government officials segregated the blood of black and white donors. Drew refused to honor the practice and took his stand against the army, maintaining that all human blood was the same. The U.S. Army turned against him, and he was criticized by white doctors. In October 1941 Drew lost his fight with the army when his enemies forced him out of his Red Cross job. He was "let go" and "permitted" to return to a professorship in surgery at Howard University Medical School at a time when most doctors were serving in the armed forces. His enemies suggested the position he had held in the blood bank was too high a post for a black man.

High Honors

Drew's research in blood plasma won him honors, including the Spingarn Medal of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People "for the highest and noblest achievement by an American negro." Both Virginia State College and Amherst College awarded him honorary degrees. But he never became a member of the American Medical Association, because his local chapter in Washington, D.C., was segregated. Drew died in an automobile accident in North Carolina in 1950.

Sources:

Roland Bertol, Charles Drew (New York: Crowell, 1970);

Herbert M. Morais, The History of the Negro in Medicine, third edition (New York: Publishers Company, 1970), pp. 107-109;

Obituary, New York Times (2 April 1950): 76;

Rinna Evelyn Wolfe, Charles Richard Drew, M.D. (New York: Watts, 1991).