James McCune Smith (1813-1865)was the first Black American to earn a medical degree—which he received in Scotland when no American university would admit him. Born to a formerly enslaved woman and an estranged white man, McCune Smith became a prominent abolitionist, educator, and lecturer, giving fiery lectures to disprove Black inferiority and writing prolifically about Black life and culture.
On McCune Smith, abolitionist and American hero Frederick Douglass said:
“No man in this country more thoroughly understands the whole struggle between freedom and slavery than does Dr. Smith, and his heart is as broad as his understanding.”