Charles Richard Drew

Charles Richard Drew 1904-50, African-American physician, b. Washington, D.C. A surgeon and a professor at Howard Univ. (1935-36; 1942-50), he developed a means of preserving blood plasma for transfusion. During World War II he headed (1940-41) the program that sent blood to Great Britain and was (1941-42) the director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank .

Drew, Charles Richard (1904–1950), pioneering blood plasma scientist, surgeon, teacher.Born in Washington, D.C., Charles Drew graduated from McGill University Medical School in Montreal in 1933, ranking second in a class of 137. During a two‐year fellowship at Columbia University's medical school (1938–1940), he did research on blood banking, setting up Presbyterian Hospital's first blood bank, and became the first African American to receive the doctor of science degree. Drew served as medical director of the Blood for Britain Project in 1940 and also of a 1941 American Red Cross pilot project involving the mass production of dried plasma. Drew's work proved pivotal to the success of the Red Cross's blood‐collection program, a major life‐saving agent during World War II. In 1941 Drew became chairman of Howard University's department of surgery and chief surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital, where he worked tirelessly to build Howard's surgical residency program. Between 1941 and 1950, he trained more than half of the black surgeons certified by the American Board of Surgery. During the war years, Drew had spoken out against the Red Cross's blood segregation policy. When he died at the age of forty‐five after an auto accident in North Carolina, a legend sprang up that he had bled to death after being turned away from a whites‐only hospital. Although the legend was false, persisting medical discrimination against African Americans perpetuated it. Throughout his career, Drew was committed to making medical care and training available to citizens of all races and economic levels.
See also Medical Education; Medicine: Since 1945; Segregation, Racial; Surgery.

Bibliography

Charles E. Wynes , Charles Richard Drew: The Man and the Myth, 1988.
Spencie Love , One Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew, 1996.

Spencie Love