African American HISTORY

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The nineteenth century represents an important century for African Americans as it is the year in the United States when the African Americans began to enjoy their right to education. Prior to the nineteenth century, African American education was not a concern for many of the states across the United States. This was done in order to maintain and safeguard the institution of slavery. Many states across the united states specially the states in the south of the united states had severe laws that restricted and prevented access to any form of education by the African Americans .The only form of education the African Americans received was the one provided by the Christian missionaries In churches since the missionaries believed that the ability to read was a prerequisite to good Christianity. The founding of schools by the missionaries began in1830s teaching general primary education .These schools had inferior facilities than those enjoyed by their white counterparts (Clayton & Bird 268)
The education for African Americans flourished in the 1800s. At the beginning of the century there were no schooling to African Americans; by the middle of the century there was amalgamation of public schools into the mainstream American system of education and the founding of the first medical colleges that trained black medics. These medical school enrolled few blacks and the education received was not in any way equal to the type of education that the whites received. Before the civil war there were very few African Americans trained to be medics since medical education was not open to black and colored people in the United States. The few fortunate ones trained to be surgeons received their training in Europe Canada and a few schools in the north of the United States (United States National Library of Medicine). This paper explores the challenges and the hardships that African Americans faced in their quest to obtain educational qualifications in the health related disciplines before the year 1870.
Before the nineteenth century, African Americans faced a lot of problems looking for medical education since there were very few medical institutions that could enroll black and colored people regardless of their academic potential. The medical schools that could admit black students were under the control of the white population and were few. The medics who trained under the medical schools were denied chances of specialized studies and privileges in the hospital settings unlike their white counterparts. Hospitals could deny qualified African American physician’s opportunity to serve and treat their patients just out of sheer racism. There were also very few hospitals that could offer specialized training to African American physicians. Black students admitted to medical schools faced blatant prejudice and racism in their learning environment. The health system before the nineteenth century was characterized by racial segregation of the system of health into racial classes (Clayton & Bird 278).
For most of the blacks who were working as slaves their health was under the care of their masters. There was no encouragement by the slave owners for their slaves to engage in almost any profession as the lives of the slaves was almost controlled by their masters. Those who tried to gain entry into medical schools faced opposition from the racially segregated schools that were hostile to the education of the black population. As a result there were clear health disparities between the whites and the African population as the Africans had generally poor health and low standards of living and poor hygiene as compared to whites. The society was highly compounded by the problem of racial and class stratification of the health system which built a system of medical social culture. These factors affected the training and the advancement of medical education for African American as the system was hostile to their training. Blacks were almost completely locked out of training and advancement of the training in the medical filed since only those who were freed could engage in other professions while those who were not freed were under the complete control of their masters and those who rebelled were dealt with brutality and sometimes even killed (Clayton & Bird 274).
There was a general consensus amongst the white community at the time that poor health conditions for blacks as alright and the health system marginalized blacks in all areas. There was a culture of self preservation by the white majority populations at the time that made sure that the health education systems and the hospitals ignored the special training and needs of the minority back population in the United States. The freed slaves who could engage in medical professions were pitied against the poor working whites. The poor whites viewed the freed slaves as competitors in the medical filed positions that were scarce at the time and considered them to be not fit for their positions since they seemed to change the status qou of having the whites making the majority of the staff in the health care industry. The environment that new qualified trained African American medics found themselves in as hostile and very competitive as the races fought for social mobility and financial improvement in the nineteenth century. This competition between races for competition was spawned more racism in the health system meaning that blacks could not be hired into any of positions in the healthcare just because of their race despite having the necessary qualifications (Kennedy, Marthis & Angela 56).
The evolution of the profession of black medics thus began in a secluded environment from the mainstream field on its own .There was no organized health care for African Americans as a result of the need by the slave owners to manage the diseases of their slaves. After the civil war between the northern and southern states in the United States, the white communities established a system of healthcare that was segregated on racial lines. There were white owned hospitals that catered for the freed slaves in the southern states and only admitted black s while there were other specialized hospitals to cater for the white population. Although these hospitals admitted only black patients they also rarely admitted African American physicians. These hospitals for blacks had fewer facilities often offered sub standard health care and had inadequate personnel and equipments. As many African Americans began obtaining their medical degrees in Europe and the universities in the northern states of the United States they began to see the need for forming black medical institutions, hospitals for blacks, and their own medical organizations for blacks as a way of responding to the blatant racism that was present in the nineteenth century and the earlier centuries (United...