Thomas Graham Dorsey

Last updated
Thomas Dorsey
Born
Thomas Graham Dorsey

February 1839
DiedNovember 22, 1897 (aged 58)
Washington, DC
Education Oberlin College
Harvard Medical School
Years active1869-1897
Known forOne of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School (1869)
Scientific career
Fields Medicine

Thomas Graham Dorsey (February 1839-November 22, 1897) was an American physician and one of the first black graduates of Harvard Medical School in 1869. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Biography

Dorsey was born in February 1839, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. [4] He was the youngest son of Mary E. Dorsey and Augustus Dorsey, a clothier [4] and real estate investor. [5] [6] His oldest brother, Charles A. Dorsey, was an educator and the namesake of Charles A. Dorsey School PS 67 in Brooklyn, New York. [4] [7]

He graduated from Oberlin Academy in 1860, [4] and attended Oberlin College until 1862. [8] Beginning in 1865, [4] he apprenticed with J. M. Leedom, M.D., in Germantown [3] and Philadelphia. [9] Leedom arranged for him to continue his medical education at Harvard Medical School. [3] In 1869, Dorsey graduated from Harvard Medical School. [1] [3] [10] [11] Edwin C. J. T. Howard [12] and he were the first black doctors to graduate from Harvard Medical School. [1] [2] [10] [13]

After Harvard, Dorsey was a doctor in Washington D.C. [3]

Dorsey died on November 22, 1897, in Washington, DC. [4] Upon his father’s death, his brother and he inherited a portion of "the most valuable real estate owned by Afro-Americans in Philadelphia.” [5]

Legacy

Harvard Medical School hosts the annual “Howard, Dorsey, Still Lecture and Diversity Awards Ceremony” to honor the school’s first three black graduates. [1] [2]


References

  1. 1 2 3 4 1850 - 1871: African-American Trailblazers at Harvard Medical School (HMS). See “The first Black students and woman student enrolled at HMS in 1850. The three Black students, Daniel Laing Jr., Isaac H. Snowden, and Martin Robison Delany, had completed all requirements for admission. … students sent letters and petitions to the faculty, both for and against the presence of these ... students. Ultimately, … the faculty voted to allow the Black students to finish the term, with the caveat that no other students of color could attend lectures in the future. Laing, Snowden, and Delany left HMS at the end of the winter term in March (1851) ... and all three went on to practice medicine. After the Civil War, HMS changed its policy, although sources do not detail debate over the decision. Two Black students, Edwin C. J. T. Howard and Thomas Graham Dorsey, graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1869.” Harvard Medical School. Retrieved April 20, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Davis, Belinda (April 28, 2017). 3 Honored at HMS 2017 Diversity Awards Ceremony. Harvard Medical School. Retrieved April 19, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Perspectives of Change: Thomas Graham Dorsey, MD, Class of 1869. Center for the History of Medicine at Countway Library, Harvard University.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Nercessian, N. N. (2004). Against all odds : the legacy of students of African descent at Harvard Medical School before affirmative action, 1850-1968. Harvard Medical School. 74-76. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  5. 1 2 The Plaindealer (March 4, 1892). Personal and Impersonal: Prof. Charles Dorsey of Brooklyn, NY, and T. Graham Dorsey, MD, of Washington, DC, sons of the late Augustus Dorsey of this city, have, through their attorney, Theophilus J . Minton, effected a partition of their estate which comprises a portion of most valuable real estate owned by Afro-Americans in Philadephia. 7. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  6. ↑ Lapansky, Emma Jones (January 1984). Friends, Wives, and Strivings: Networks and Community Values Among Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia Afroamerican Elites. See “So was Augustus Dorsey, whose wealth included real estate in New Jersey as well as Pennsylvania and who bequeathed a substantial sum to Afroamerican charities.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 108. 3-24. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  7. ↑ History of PS 67: With a history dating back to 1827, P.S. 67 Charles A. Dorsey School was the first independently led educational initiative for black Brooklynites. Named after Charles A. Dorsey, the longest-serving principal after the Civil War … Oberlin educated Dorsey was a member of Philadelphia’s black elite and became the school’s longest serving principal from 1863 to 1897. Charles A. Dorsey School PS 67. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  8. ↑ Black Student Records at Oberlin College: “Catalogue and Record of Colored Students, 1835-1862," Men. Oblerlin College Libraries. Retrieved April 22, 2025.
  9. ↑ Ruschenberger, MD, W.S.W. (1887). Appendix: Roll of Fellows of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. *(died while a fellow) Leedom, J. M. 1864 (elected a fellow). d(ied) Jan 8, 1885. M.D., 1859, Univ. Pa. (University of Pennsylvania). College of Physicians of Philadelphia During A Hundred Years, From January 1787. (Philadelphia: Wm. J. Dornan, Printer). 242. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  10. 1 2 Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Harvard University, 1636-1890. Thomas Graham Dorsey. Harvard University. 239. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  11. ↑ Martin, Susan (April 4, 2023). The DeGrasse-Howard Papers: Black Families in Boston and Philadelphia. Massachusetts Historical Society. Retrieved April 18, 2025.
  12. ↑ Quinquennial Catalogue of the Officers and Graduates of Harvard University, 1636-1890. Edwin Clarence Howard. Harvard University. 240. Retrieved April 26, 2025.
  13. ↑ Howard, Joy (2022). The Winding Path Toward Racial Equity. Winter 2022: Standing Tall for Justice: Cultivating equity and inclusion in medicine. Brigham.
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