“One of those awful policies...”

If it was impossible to find African American doctors who were residents at U-M in the 1940s and 50s to interview for this piece, that’s because there simply were none. The first black resident was admitted to the program in 1965.

Howard Markel

“Before the civil rights movement, there were many, many hospitals, whether implicitly or not, that simply didn’t accept black students, or black interns and residents,” says Howard Markel (M.D. 1986), Ph.D., and the George E. Wantz Professor of the History of Medicine and director of the Historical Center for the Health Sciences at the University of Michigan. “There was a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ to not do certain things. Such policies were rarely discussed openly, but the reasoning behind these bigoted responses had to do with the assumption that white patients would not accept a black doctor treating them. In point of fact, I doubt anyone asked if this was true or not.

“Our Medical School was a pioneer in accepting students of color, Asian students, women and Jewish students, long before other schools did. On the other hand, when it came to the internship and residency programs at University Hospital, African-Americans were not accepted until 1965. Making sense of segregation using today’s sensibilities is, alas, an impossible task. It’s one of those awful policies that we don’t have anymore, thankfully. But regardless, working on equal access to health care and health education for all Americans is something we all need to continue to address in the 21st century.

“When you speak to elderly black physicians who were rejected from medical schools or residency programs several decades ago simply on the basis of their skin color, they will freely tell you about the psychic scars caused by segregation. In this regard, the University of Michigan is a microcosm of American society.”

Also:

A residency lexicon

The Residency Years: Then and Now