David Kearny McDonogh, the First Black Otolaryngologist

Tiana M. Saak, David A. Gudis MD, Kibwei McKinney MD, Lawrence R. Lustig MD, on behalf of the History and Archives Committee*

“Tribute to Dr. David Kearny McDonogh” by Leroy Campbell, 2018. Painting at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary.February is Black History Month, a natural time to reflect on the many Black otolaryngologists who have played crucial roles in shaping our field. One such remarkable individual, David McDonogh, MD, while born into chattel slavery, became the first Black otolaryngologist in the United States.

He faced immeasurable adversity along his improbable journey to freedom and success as an eye, ear, nose, and throat doctor in New York. We previously shared* his incredible story as an article in Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, “From a Slave to a Surgeon: David Kearny McDonogh, the First Black Otolaryngologist,” after his doctorate in medicine was posthumously awarded to his great-great-granddaughter in 2018 by the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.¹ In honor of Black History Month, we present highlights of his extraordinary path to otolaryngology.

David McDonogh was born into slavery on a New Orleans plantation in 1821. His owner, John McDonogh, was a strong supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS), a movement dedicated to forcibly relocating freed slaves to colonize West Africa as an alternative to emancipation at home. To accomplish its objective of a flourishing democracy in West Africa, the ACS recognized that educating former slaves would be essential. A small number of freed slaves were therefore sponsored to attend White schools.

In line with ACS values, John McDonogh taught his slaves to read and write, committed to a pathway for his slaves to emigrate to West Africa upon emancipation. Recognizing David’s potential as a student, John McDonogh and Walter Lowrie, secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions in New York City at the time, arranged for David to attend Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1838, where he was to study religion before emigrating to West Africa as a missionary. Upon David’s arrival, Lowrie made him a freedman against John McDonogh’s wishes.

At Lafayette, David began to study anatomy and surgery while apprenticing with a local doctor and pharmacist. Although he initially planned to emigrate to West Africa in line with the goals of the college, he revealed his burgeoning passion for medicine in a letter to Lowrie stating that he “would sacrifice almost anything rather than give up” his medical studies. David soon became “decidedly, utterly, and radically” opposed to emigration, since “nothing…will induce me to leave this country before I complete, at least, my medical studies and receive the degree of MD.” David McDonogh became the first African American graduate of Lafayette College in 1844, where the sculpture “Transcendence” stands today in his honor (see Figure 1 in the original article). 

David became disillusioned when he learned that no New York medical school would admit him, but he found an “honorable exception” in John Kearny Rodgers, MD, a professor at New York City’s College of Physicians and Surgeons (P&S), now the medical school of Columbia University.

Dr. Rodgers served as David’s preceptor and arranged for him to attend P&S. Although David was never formally admitted to the school nor granted a degree, he completed the full course of study. Dr. Rodgers subsequently founded what is known today as the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and arranged an appointment there for Dr. McDonogh, where “he did much excellent work” and was “in frequent demand by some of the most eminent practitioners of the city as a valuable consultant.” After Dr. Rodgers passed, David adopted his middle name to honor his mentor, becoming Dr. David Kearny McDonogh. Today a painting hangs at the infirmary honoring Dr. McDonogh (see Figure 2 in the original article).

Dr. McDonogh practiced eye, ear, nose, and throat medicine, in addition to general medicine, in New York for the remainder of his career. He was also active in the Colored Conventions Movement to advocate for abolition and Black leadership, and his election to New York’s Council of Colored Persons in 1853 was overseen by Frederick Douglass and James McCume Smith, MD. (Smith, the first African American to hold an MD, had received his from the University of Glasgow in Scotland.) McDonogh married, had three children, and held several such leadership positions over the course of his life. In 1875, McDonogh finally received a formal medical degree from the Eclectic Medical College of New York. He died in 1893 in Newark, New Jersey.

McDonough Memorial Hospital, West 41st St., New York, NY, 1895. Public Domain.In 1898, a group of Black physicians made history by opening New York City’s first hospital to allow doctors and patients of any race. Named in Dr. McDonogh’s honor, the hospital declared itself one “in which physicians, regardless of nationality, creed or color, can have clinical practice…to afford medical and surgical aid and nursing to sick and disabled persons of every creed, nationality and color.” Although the hospital was open for only six years, Dr. McDonogh’s legacy lives on through generations of otolaryngologists and patients alike who have all greatly benefited from his impact on the field.

Reference

1. Gudis, D.A., McKinney, K.A. and Lustig, L.R. (2022), From a Slave to a Surgeon: David Kearny McDonogh, the First Black Otolaryngologist. Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, 166: 1169-1171. https://doi.org/10.1177/01945998221090119