35TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION Super Hero DR. CHARLES RICHARD DREW

Dr. Charles Richard Drew 

Dr. Charles Richard Drew not only revolutionized the medical profession by developing a way to store blood and plasma, he also created the world's first blood bank. But Drew had another priority—crusading to change the way African Americans, especially as physicians, were viewed and treated by whites. 

Born the eldest of five children on June 3, 1904, Drew lived in the racially mixed Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The area was an enclave where Blacks rarely had to deal with the federally sanctioned Jim Crow laws. 

Drew was an exceptional student and athlete at Dunbar High School. He decided to become a doctor after his sister died of tuberculosis in 1920. After graduating from Amherst College in Massachusetts, Drew taught for two years, then he went to McGill University in Montreal, Canada, for medical school. 

While Drew served his medical internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, he saved an elderly man who needed a blood transfusion in order to have his leg amputated. During that time, many people died because doctors had to match the blood type before a transfusion could take place. Drew's research changed all that. 

In 1935, Drew taught and practiced at Freedmen's Hospital at Howard University, where he invented a way to separate plasma from whole blood, making it possible to store blood for a week instead of just two days. More research turned up a bigger revelation:

Transfusions could be performed with plasma alone, negating the need for blood typing since plasma contains no red blood cells. In 1938, Drew got a fellowship in blood research at New York City's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and ran its first blood bank. 

In 1940, Drew became the first African American to earn an advanced doctorate of science degree, and he invented a technique for long-term plasma storage. He set up the world's first blood bank in Britain that same year, as part of the country's World War II effort. As America prepared to enter the war, Drew was appointed medical director of the American Red Cross's National Blood Bank program. But the U.S. War Department issued an edict forbidding the armed forces to mix Black and white blood, even while admitting in a memorandum that their decision was based on "reasons not biologically convincing, but which are commonly recognized as psychologically important in America." A furious Drew called a press conference, asking, "How have we, in this age and hour, allowed once again to creep into our hearts the dark myths and wretched superstitions of the past? Will we ever share a common brotherhood?" Drew resigned his post. 

In April 1941, Drew was certified as a surgeon by the American Board of Surgery. He then returned to Howard University as a full professor. Two of his students became the first Howard graduates to qualify for the American Board of Surgery, and Drew continued pushing his students to seek internships and residencies in white establishments. His efforts greatly increased the number of Blacks getting jobs outside the African-American medical community. 

Drew was appointed chief of staff at Freedman's Hospital in 1944 and was awarded the Spingarn Medal by the NAACP. In 1947, he began an unsuccessful crusade against the American Medical Association (AMA) for a policy that effectively kept Blacks from joining. The AMA didn't change its policy until 1968. (In 1996, the AMA elected its first African-American president, Dr. Lonnie R. Bristow.) Drew was later named consultant to the surgeon general of the U.S. Army. 

By 1950, despite an international reputation, Drew remained poor, since Black medical researchers made far less money than private practitioners of any race. He died the morning of April 1, 1950, when he fell asleep while driving to a medical conference at Tuskegee. Drew, despite a blood transfusion at the hospital, died of internal injuries. He was 45.

From Great African Americans.  Copyright, Publications International, Ltd.