Alexander Thomas Augusta
Alexander Thomas Augusta was the first Black professor of medicine in the United States. Augusta was born a free man in Norfolk, Virginia on March 9th 1825. As a youth, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where he worked as a barber to pay for a medical education, a childhood dream of his. He secretly learned to read and write under the tutelage of Daniel Payne, a future bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and president of Wilberforce University in Ohio. He applied to the University of Pennsylvania, but was denied because of his race.
In 1853, he moved to Toronto, where he studied medicine at Trinity College. During his time in Toronto, Augusta was an active member of the community, taking a special interest in helping other Blacks. Augusta completed his medical training and graduated in 1856, but did not receive his Bachelor of Medicine degree until 1860 from Trinity Medical College. Augusta established a successful private practice in Canada, in 1862. He had no problem attracting patients, most of whom were White. Augusta was also president of the Association for the Education of Colored People in Canada, which provided books and school supplies to Black children.
In addition to his professional and civic duties, Augusta played a vigorous role in racial matters. Whether seeking a venue for a visiting American abolitionist speaker or drafting a resolution opposing an anti-black candidate for Canada’s parliament, Augusta never tired of supporting the fundamental issue of racial justice. As he would do so throughout his life, he boldly confronted racism and discrimination head on. In fact, Augusta was willing to take unprecedented action whenever the cause demanded it. He canceled his membership in an all-Black church in Toronto in order to demonstrate his opposition to segregated institutions that existed in the city.
With the bombardment of Fort Sumter by Confederate forces on 12 April 1861, the United States had been plunged into civil war. Augusta grew increasingly anxious about the destiny of his country and the fate of his “race.” Dr. Augusta returned to America in early 1862. On January 1st 1863, during the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, which not only freed the slaves in Confederate-controlled states and areas, but also called for the enlistment of Blacks into the Union Army. A week later, Augusta wrote to Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton asking that he be appointed as surgeon to some of the new “colored” regiments or as a physician to some of the depots of ‘freedmen.’”
On April 14th 1863, the 38-year-old physician received a major’s commission as a surgeon for Black troops and became head surgeon of the 7th Regiment Infantry, US Colored Troops. He was the Army’s first Black physician out of eight Black officers in the Union Army to serve during the war. With his appointment, Augusta became the highest-ranking African American officer in the U.S. military, and an instant hero of the Black community. His rank did not shield him from racism. On one occasion Augusta was attacked on a Baltimore train for wearing his officer’s uniform.
Despite being a commissioned officer and a doctor, his pay of $7 a month, (the standard wage for a Black private), was less than that of a White private. A personal appeal to Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts resulted in the proper salary for his rank. Complaints from White subordinates led Lincoln to transfer him to run the local Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington DC in 1863. This appointment made Augusta the first Black hospital administrator in the United States. Alexander Augusta served as the Union Army’s highest-ranking Black officer during the Civil War.
A supporter of the American antislavery movement, in 1861 and wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, offering his services as a surgeon. He received a major’s commission as head surgeon in the 7th U.S. Colored Infantry as a major, the Army’s first Black physician out of eight in the Union Army—and its highest-ranking Black officer. His rank did not shield him from racism. In March of 1865, Augusta received the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, the first Black person ever to gain this stature. After the cessation of major hostilities in the spring of 1865, Augusta eventually mustered out of military service.
He went to work for the Freedmen’s Bureau, a War Department agency, which provided food, clothing, fuel, medical care, legal aid, and education to former slaves (and poor whites) in the war-torn South. Augusta continued private practice in Washington, D.C., and taught in the newly founded Howard University Medical Department. Augusta once again shattered barriers by becoming the first African American to teach medicine at the university level in the United States. During the next decade, he taught anatomy at Howard, served briefly as dean of the medical department, and worked at the Smallpox and Freedman’s Hospitals.
In 1869, for his long and distinguished career in medicine, Howard University awarded Augusta the degree of medicinal doctor, the first honorary degree ever given to a man of color by an American university. Two years later, he also received an honorary master’s degree. These accolades were well deserved. As an African American and as a doctor, he had overcome numerous obstacles, and had broken new ground for people of color.