VOL. I--APRIL, 1916--No. 2




THE HISTORIC BACKGROUND OF THE NEGRO PHYSICIAN



In a homogeneous society where there is no racial cleavage, only the
selected members of the most favored class occupy the professional
stations. The element representing the social status of the Negro would,
therefore, furnish few members of the coveted callings. The element of
race, however, complicates every feature of the social equation. In India
we are told that the population is divided horizontally by caste and
vertically by religion; but in America the race spirit serves both as
horizontal and vertical separations. The Negro is segregated and shut in
to himself in all social and semi-social relations of life. This isolation
necessitates separate ministrative agencies from the lowest to the highest
rounds of the ladder of service. During the days of slavery the interests
of the master demanded that he should direct the general social and moral
life of the slave, and should provide especially for his physical
well-being. The sudden severance of this tie left the Negro wholly without
intimate guidance and direction. The ignorant must be enlightened, the
sick must be healed, and the poor must have the gospel preached to them.
The situation and circumstances under which the race found itself demanded
that its professional class, for the most part, should be men of their
own blood and sympathies. The needed service could not be effectively
performed by those who assumed and asserted racial arrogance, and bestowed
their professional service as cold crumbs that fell from the master's