This February, North High School is recognizing Black History Month by highlighting the contributions of African-American pioneers who broke barriers and pushed for equality. The school is focusing on honoring their impact and giving a greater understanding of their legacy.

Daniel Hale Williams was, and still is,  a prominent figure within the black and healthcare communities; being a leader and sharing his knowledge with the world. Daniel Hale Williams founded the first black-owned hospital in America, and performed the world’s first successful heart surgery in 1893. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams faced many obstacles due to racism and discrimination, including being denied hospital staff positions and limited opportunities for Black physicians. During the peak of segregation, African-Americans were denied proper healthcare and medical education.

 In 1894, Dr. Williams became chief surgeon of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., the most prestigious medical post available to African Americans then. There, he made improvements that reduced the hospital’s mortality rate. In 1895, he helped to organize the National Medical Association for black professionals, who were barred from the American Medical Association. Williams returned to Chicago, and continued as a surgeon. In 1891, Williams founded the first black-owned Provident Hospital and training school for nurses in Chicago, this was established mostly for the benefit of African-American residents, to increase their accessibility to health care, but its staff and patients were integrated from the start.

In 1893, Williams became the first African American on record to have successfully performed pericardium surgery to repair a wound. In 1913, he became the first African American to be inducted into the American College of Surgeons.

Still today, Dr. William’s legacy and amazing discoveries are being used amongst the medical field with over 500,000 open heart surgeries being preformed each year. As a sign appreciation from the black medical community, until this day, a “code blue” at the Howard University Hospital emergency room is called a “Dr. Dan.”. To describe the vast impact Dr. William’s has made, Vivien Thomas, a colleague wrote, “His greatest pride was that directly or indirectly, he had a hand in the making of most of the outstanding black surgeons of the current generation”.