About Dr. Charles R. Drew

Dr. Charles R. Drew lived from June 3, 1904, until April 1, 1950. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Amherst University in 1926. He received a doctorate in medicine and a master’s degree in surgery from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, in 1933. In 1940 he received a doctorate of science in medicine from Columbia University. He served as an instructor in pathology at Howard University in 1936 and as an assistant in surgery.

Drew was an eminent African-American scientist who founded the American Blood Bank. He was a pioneer in blood/blood plasma preservation, processing, and maintaining large quantities of blood to be used for transfusions. During World War II, he was named medical supervisor of blood for Britain and was later named the first director of the Red Cross Bank. However, his tenure was brief. Upon discovering that it was an accepted practice to segregate blood by ethnic groups, he took it upon himself to fight this policy. As a result, he was eventually forced to resign his position.

After the war, Drew returned to the states and resumed the chairmanship of the Department of Surgery at Howard University and also occupied the post of chief surgeon of Freeman's Hospital in Washington, D.C. He continued to aggressively pursue the rights of African-Americans to receive training at all medical schools and in all residency programs in the United States. At the time of his death in 1950, one-half of the African-Americans certified by the American Board of Surgeons had been protégés of his at Howard University Medical School. Despite the influence he had on both the medical and African-American communities, Drew has received little attention or recognition.

Drew died in 1950 at the age of 45 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident, leaving behind a legacy of commitment to academic excellence that is at the heart of the Charles Drew Science Enrichment Laboratory.

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