African Americans in DCMS

At the TMA Annual Session in 1954, C.C. Boehler, MD, of El Paso introduced a resolution to strike the word "white" from the section outlining requirements for TMA membership. Former DCMS President Tate Miller, MD, spoke in favor of its adoption:

This is not time for bitterness; this is a time to be humanitarian. There is no race or color exception in our oath of Hippocrates. It boils down to two simple questions. If organized medicine is a good thing that helps doctors take better care of sick folks, how can we in decency or charity withhold its benefits from other doctors? If organized medicine is not a good thing, why are we here?

Before the 1955 TMA meeting, board members approved a resolution calling for DCMS members to express to the delegates their support on the pending TMA constitutional amendment, which TMA delegates ultimately approved at the April Annual Session.

In June, the 277 DCMS members at the regular meeting voted unanimously to delete the word "white" from the DCMS membership statement, clearing the way for black applicants. The first African-Americans admitted into the Society in December 1955 were Harold H. Culmer, MD; William K. Flowers Jr, MD; and Joseph R. Williams, MD. Four additional applications were pending. There were a total of 18 African-American physicians in Dallas at that time. In 1995, DCMS elected its first black president, James L. Sweatt III, MD.

Their path had been paved by the likes of B.R. Bluitt, MD, who, in 1889, became the first African-American physician in Dallas. He also was the first African-American surgeon in Dallas and in Texas, and perhaps, the South. And Charles Victor Roman, MD, for which the C.V. Roman Medical Society is named, practiced in Dallas from 1890 to 1904.

In 1954 St Paul Hospital became the first major Dallas hospital to admit African-American physicians to practice. The five physicians were (standing from left) Drs Frank Jordan, Joseph Williams, William Flowers, and George Shelton. Seated is L. G. Pinkston, founder of Pinkston Clinic, a Dallas medical facility used by African-Americans. The action came the same year the US Supreme Court struck down segregated schools. In 1958 St Paul integrated its facilities for patients and in 1980, Emmet Conrad, MD, became the first African-American chief of staff.

In 1954 St Paul Hospital became the first major Dallas hospital to admit African-American physicians to practice. The five physicians were (standing from left) Drs Frank Jordan, Joseph Williams, William Flowers, and George Shelton. Seated is L.G. Pinkston, founder of Pinkston Clinic, a Dallas medical facility used by African-Americans. The action came the same year the US Supreme Court struck down segregated schools. In 1958 St Paul integrated its facilities for patients and in 1980, Emmett Conrad, MD, became the first African-American chief of staff.

William K. Flowers Jr, MD
1916-1981

William Knox Flowers Jr, MD, was the son of William Knox Flowers Sr, MD, who began practicing medicine in Dallas in 1924. When William Jr became one of the first three African-American members of DCMS, there were 18 black physicians in Dallas. He also was one of the five original physicians admitted to the staff of a major Dallas County hospital, St Paul, in 1955.

James L. Sweatt III, MD
1937-

James L. Sweatt III, MD, became DCMS' 112th president and first African-American to hold the position when he took office in 1995. By then he was used to setting precedents. When he applied to Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, in 1958, he became the first black accepted to the school. Later, as a practicing thoracic surgeon in Dallas, he was the first black, and one of the first physicians, to be appointed to the board of directors of Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1975.