AIHP Assistant Director Greg Bond recently participated in a podcast sponsored by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists about the history of pharmacy education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Recorded in conjunction with Black History Month, Dr. Bond interviewed AIHP member John Clark, of the Taneja College of Pharmacy at the University of South Florida, about Dr. Clark’s fascinating research into the long legacy and many contributions of pharmacy education at HBCUs. You can listen to the podcast at this link.
Dr. Clark and Dr. Bond have both conducted research into the history of African-Americans and pharmacy, and the 23-minute podcast focused on Dr. Clark’s study of HBCU schools of pharmacy, including those at Howard University (founded 1868), Xavier University (1927), Texas Southern University (1947), and Florida A&M University (1951).
Dr. Clark also discussed the history of defunct pharmacy schools at historically black institutions like Meharry Medical College in Tennessee, Shaw University in North Carolina, Flint Medical College in New Orleans, and the University of West Tennessee. Dr. Clark highlighted the experiences of early African-American female graduates like Bebe Stevens-Lynk and Camille Green, who went on to become two of the earliest known female African-American Pharmacy professors in the country at, respectively, the University of West Tennessee and Flint Medical College. He then discussed the impact that the closing of these schools in the 1920s and 1930s had on the provision of adequate pharmacy services for African-Americans.
Dr. Clark closed the podcast by encouraging further research and by emphasizing the need to include the history of African-Americans into the broader study of the history of pharmacy.
The American Institute of the History of Pharmacy is documenting and preserving pharmacy stories and experiences during the COVID-19 global pandemic for the benefit of future historians and scholars. We seek to record the effects of this public health emergency on all types of pharmacy experiences. We invite you to share your pharmacy stories, photos, videos, artifacts, and other documentation of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.