Howard University Medical School

Howard University Medical School
(est. 1868)

Howard University Medical School (est. 1868) was Established for the purpose of educating and training African American physicians Howard opened in 1868 to both Black and White students, including women. Its first faculty consisted of four Whites and one African American, Dr. Alexander T. Augusta. Although Dr Augusta was a physician, had been in charge of Toronto City Hospital, and was the first Negro placed in charge of Freedmen's Hospital in Washington, DC, he was only permitted to be a "demonstrator of anatomy."

Howard University Hospital (HUH) dates back to 1862. Housed in converted army barracks, it was initially called Freedmen’s Hospital and provided a refuge where ex-slaves received the medical care they were denied elsewhere. HUH is named after Major General Oliver Otis Howard. Howard and the other founders of the university understood the urgent need for a medical school in the nation's capitol. The civil war had just ended, and freed African-American people were migrating to the nation's capital in large numbers. The first opening exercise for the newly created Medical Department was held at the First Congregational Church of Christ on November 5, 1868.

Howard University Hospital is one of America's best hospitals that is rich in tradition of leadership and service. Over the course of its 145-year history of providing the finest primary, secondary and tertiary health care services, Howard University Hospital has become one of the most comprehensive health care facilities in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and designated a DC Level 1 Trauma Center. In April 2007, the Hospital ranked number one among selected area hospitals on 19 quality measures published by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. HUH is the nation's only teaching hospital located on the campus of a historically Black university