History Of Howard University Hospital
Shortly after the end of the Civil War, members of the First Congregational Society of Washington, DC, met to consider the radical idea of establishing a theological seminary for the education of African American clergymen. The result was the Howard Normal and Theological Institute for Education of Preachers and Teachers, named for one of the key founders, General Oliver Otis Howard--a decorated career United States Army Officer, a Union Major General in the American Civil War, and head of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Within a few weeks, the concept expanded to include a provision for establishing a university that would offer educational opportunities primarily to the freed Africans on American soil and their descendants, regardless of their gender. On January 8, 1867. the Board of Trustees of the normal school voted to change the name of the institution to Howard University, again in honor of its esteemed supporter.
Howard University was chartered by the United States Congress on March 2, 1867. The act to incorporate Howard declared that it be recognized as "a university for the education of youth in the liberal arts and sciences." On May 1, 1867, the new institution opened to all races and genders with Charles B. Boynton, a pastor and one of the original incorporators, as president. Five White female students, daughters of two of the founders, were its first students.
General Oliver O. Howard
Howard University is named for Major General Oliver Otis Howard, a native of Maine and a graduate of Bowdoin College (1850) and West Point (1854). As a brigade commander in the Union's Army of the Potomac, Oliver Howard lost his right arm while leading his men against Confederate forces in the 1862 battle of Fair Oaks, Virginia, an action that later earned him the Medal of Honor.
Howard played a major role in the federal government's Reconstruction Era programs. In May 1865, Gen. Howard was appointed as Commissioner of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, more commonly referred to as the Freedmen’s Bureau. This appointment brought him to the city of Washington, where he had charge of integrating the newly emancipated Africans into American society. He served as president of Howard University from 1869 to 1874.
The Presidents Of Howard University
In the ensuing 150 years of its evolution, Howard University had 17 presidents, including its founder and namesake. Several were preachers; two were bishops in their respective denominations. All but one-Boynton, the first president who left college in his senior year~were college graduates. The first African American president of Howard University was Dr. Mordecai W. Johnson, the legendary 11th president, who served longer than any other president. Johnson led the University for 34 years from 1926 to 1960. Johnson was at the helm through difficult times of economic and social upheaval, from the Great Depression through the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras.
He also recruited a faculty of excellence that gave the University a well-deserved international reputation. All six presidents since Johnson have been African American, culminating in the current and 17th: Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick. Dr. Frederick is the first surgeon and the first triple-alumni president of the University-having earned his undergraduate, doctor of medicine, and masters of business administration degrees at his alma mater.
"Excellence of Performance will Transcend Artificial Barriers Created By Man"
Dr. Charles R. Drew
Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr.
Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., was a surgeon par excellence, oncologist, medical educator, civic leader, and mentor, to so many individuals at Howard University.
Born on May 22, 1930, in Tallahassee, Florida, Dr. Leffall was an exceptional student graduating from high school at just 15 years old, and summa cum laude from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College–now Florida A&M University–in 1948.
He was trained at the Howard University College of Medicine and ultimately graduated first in his class. He completed his surgical training at Freedmen’s Hospital—now Howard University Hospital—in 1957, and then completed a surgical oncology training at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1957-59).
In 1962, Dr. Leffall joined Howard’s faculty as an assistant professor and became chairman of the Department of Surgery only eight years later, a position he held for 25 years. Dr. Leffall was the first African American to serve as national president of the American Cancer Society, where he focused attention on the increasing incidence and mortality of cancer among Black Americans, creating an innovative program to address cancer disparities among ethnic populations.
Dr. Leffall was also the first African American president of other national organizations, including the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Society of Surgical Chairmen, and the American College of Surgeons. He lectured at more than 200 medical institutions across the country, taught more than 6,000 medical students, and trained more than 300 surgical residents.
His teaching honors are unmatched in the University’s century-and-a-half-long history, including the prestigious honored faculty award during the College of Medicine’s Honors and Oath ceremony more than 30 times. His prolific academic contributions include more than 150 publications, three books, visiting professorships at more than 200 institutions internationally, 14 honorary degrees from universities in America, and honorary fellowships from six international college of surgeons. He was named the Charles R. Drew Professor in 1992, occupying the first endowed chair in the history of Howard’s Department of Surgery.
The great heights reached by Dr. Leffall never kept him from being accessible to students, patients, and staff in a manner that was marked by unconditional love and selflessness. He was a good listener, slow to give or take offense, and always encouraging others to find the broader lesson in seemingly quotidian situations. His towering intellect made each interaction edifying.
His numerous awards and achievements only begin to highlight his extraordinary contributions to the field of medicine. Dr. Leffall was a true son of Howard and a loyal exemplar of the University’s motto: “Truth and Service.” He leaves behind a legacy of service and benevolence to the University as a long-standing donor who created opportunities for subsequent generations of students through his generosity.
Wayne A. I. Frederick, M.D, MBA
President, Howard University
Howard University College Of Medicine
On November 5, 1868, the opening exercise for the Howard University Medical Department was held at the First Congregational Church, where the department's parent institution was established the year before. The Medical Department would later evolve into Howard's College of Medicine. Dr. Lafayette Loomis, a physician and brother of Dr. Silas Loomis, one of the University’s founders, gave the address. The final lines of Loomis’s address were especially forceful:
"What a field of honorable toil is here! How limitless its opportunities for good! How worthy the life that uses them well! Such toil, such opportunities and such honor open to the patient, conscientious and faithful student of medicine. May the after years of your lives my young friends, justify the hopes of the present hour, and along your sometimes weary student's life may you never forget that success comes only of patient toil, and that patient toil never fails of success."
On Monday, November 9, 1868, at five o'clock in the evening, medical classes began with eight students, seven Blacks and one White, and five faculty members: Drs. Silas Loomis, Robert Reyburn, Joseph Taber Johnson, Lafayette Loomis, and Alexander Thomas Augusta.
The Department Of Surgery - A Legacy Of Excellence
The Howard University Department of Surgery has a storied history of providing excellent care to the patients we serve. Residents describe our training program as diverse, collegial, and very supportive. It is the responsibility of our faculty to ensure that residents receive the best possible training while challenging you to improve each day clinically, technically, professionally, and personally to fulfill your God-given talents and higher calling, and that is to make man whole: physically, mentally, and spiritually. Our operative principles are based on mottos from pioneering former Chairs which reads “Excellence in performance will transcend artificially barriers created by man” and “Equanimity under Duress”.