Dr. Charles Drew
#blackhistoryProfiles
Dr. Charles R. Drew was a pioneering medical scientist whose groundbreaking research into blood transfusion and storage helped save thousands of lives during World War II and beyond.
After earning medical and surgery degrees from the McGill University College of Medicine in Montreal, Canada, Drew began a doctoral program at Columbia University and received a fellowship to train at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. Rather than have him treat white patients, the hospital assigned him to work on an experimental blood bank.
Through his work at the hospital, Drew discovered that blood could be separated into its different components (plasma, red blood cells, and platelets) and his research into standards for collecting, processing, and storing blood paved the way for the development of modern blood banks.
In February 1941, Drew became the first director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank. Under his leadership, the agency built a fleet of refrigerated trucks known as blood mobiles. The blood collected was distributed to allied soldiers, but Drew resigned his post in protest the following year over the Red Cross’s refusal to use the blood of African Americans in its plasma supply networks.
Drew moved on to Howard University, where he was in charge of the Department of Surgery as well as Chief of Surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital.
Drew continued to campaign against white supremacy until his death in 1950 when he crashed after falling asleep during a drive to a conference in North Carolina. He was 46.