Charles R. Drew MD

Description

Charles R. Drew, MD was an American physician and surgeon, who pioneered the field of blood transfusion, the storage and preservation of blood, and the use of plasma as a blood substitute. He was born in Washington, D.C. on June 3, 1904, to a family of modest means. Drew attended Amherst College and McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where he earned a degree in medicine and surgery.

Drew soon gained recognition for his groundbreaking research on blood transfusions and storage. He was instrumental in the establishment of the first blood bank in the United States, at Columbia University in 1940, and became the first African American to receive a Doctor of Medical Science degree from Columbia. In 1941, Drew was appointed the first head of the American Red Cross Blood Bank and went on to help organize the first national blood bank program.

Drew was an advocate for racial equality in the medical field. He was the first African American to be appointed to the American Association of Blood Banks and was a major inspiration for the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Drew died from injuries sustained in a car accident in 1950, but his legacy in medicine and his contribution to the civil rights movement of the 1960s is remembered to this day. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1996.