The Other Heroes: Dr. Charles R. Drew

     The Other Heroes is a short series I'll be writing for the rest of February. It'll be about important black figures that have made contributions to society. Last February, I challenged myself to explore less famous black writers from the past and this February I'm committing to learning about important black people that aren't as mainstream. The first person to kickstart my series is Dr. Charles R. Drew. Dr. Charles R. Drew was a physician. He was from DC and grew up playing sports. After graduating high school, he attended Amherst University with an athletic scholarship. After graduating college, he worked as a college biology professor for a while at Morgan State University in Baltimore (formerly Morgan College) before going to a medical school called McGill in Montreal, Canada. There he earned two degrees, Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery. During his residency he was able to learn about blood transfusions alongside Dr. John Beattie. It was around this time, his dad passed away and he came back to the United States to work at Howard University and completed a surgery residence. After this, he went on to study at Columbia University and received another degree. He continued to study and tried to figure out a way to preserve blood. He figured out that blood plasma could be preserved for a longer time and could be dried and reused. From this discovery, he would end up opening two blood banks and working during WWII helping with blood banks. He advocated for African Americans to have their blood used during the war. However, the blood from African Americans were segregated and used separately. This unethical behavior upset him, so he resigned. Dr. Charles Drew went back to Howard University as a professor and worked as a head surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital. Dr. Charles Drew earned many rewards and his contribution to the world has helped groups of all people! For that alone, he's definitely a hero!

Source: Charles Drew - Life, Family & Inventions - Biography

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