PEDIATRICS Vol. 3 No. 6 June 1949, pp. 854-861
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THE PEDIATRICIAN AND THE PUBLIC

AN OPEN FORUM

PAUL HARPER M.D.

Editors: EDWARDS A. PARK, M.D..

DR. W. MONTAGUE COBB, who prepared the article which follows, is the professor of anatomy at Howard University School of Medicine, Washington, D.C., and is recognized as one of the foremost Negro educators in this country. He is chairman of the Council on Medical Education and Hospitals of the National Medical Association and a member of the National Medical Committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. His article describes the difficulties and obstacles encountered by Negroes in this country in obtaining medical education and shows the paucity of Negro physicians and the dearth of facilities for medical care of our 14,000,000 Negro people.

It is generally admitted that the greatest difficulty in our current medical care structure is the appalling lack of personnel and facilities for the care of the Negro. The Negro and white races are so intermingled in their working and living arrangements that the health of one race is profoundly influenced by the state of health of the other. Sickness in the Negro undoubtedly takes its toll among the white race. But the real reason why good medical education and good medical care should be provided for the Negro race is not this, but because they need it for their own happiness and welfare; as citizens of this country they are entitled to equal opportunity to obtain good medical care.

If the editors of the column may be permitted to express their own personal views, it is that qualified Negroes should be admitted to our medical schools and should subsequently be given the necessary opportunities to obtain working experience in our hospitals and clinics.