The National Library of Medicine and the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture have developed an exhibit on the history of African American surgeons.The exhibit features the work of four African American pioneers:
* Alexa I. Canady, the first African American woman to become a pediatric neurosurgeon.
* LaSalle D. Leffall Jr., a cancer surgeon who was the first African American president of the American College of Surgeons.
* Claude H. Organ Jr., the first African American to chair a department of surgery at a predominantly White medical school.
* Rosalyn P. Scott, the first African American woman to be a cardiothoratic surgeon.
There are two sets of the exhibit, entitled “Opening Doors: Contemporary African American Academic Surgeons.” They are currently on display at Youngstown State University in Ohio and at Prairie View A&M University in Texas. The next stops are Albany Medical College in New York and the University of California at Riverside. A full schedule of where the exhibit is headed is available here.
There is also an online exhibit that include profiles of the pioneers listed above and also an illustrated history of African Americans in the field of surgery. The online exhibit can be seen here.
