New and Noteworthy--African American Doctors, Nurses And The Freedman's Hospital

African American Medicine in Washington, D.C.:  Healing The Capital During The Civil War Era, Heather Mutts, History Press, 2014, b/w illustrations, end notes, bibliography, index, $19.99. 

From The Publisher: The service of African Americans in defense of the Union during the Civil War required African American nurses, doctors and surgeons to heal those soldiers. 

In the nation’s capital, these brave health care workers created a medical infrastructure for African Americans by African Americans. Preeminent surgeon Alexander T. Augusta fought discrimination, visited President Lincoln, testified before Congress and aided the war effort. Washington’s Freedmen’s Hospital was formed to serve the District’s growing free African American population, eventually becoming the Howard University Medical Center. 

These physicians would form the National Medical Association, the largest and oldest organization representing African American doctors and patients. Author Heather M. Butts recounts the heroic lives and work of Washington’s African American medical community during the Civil War.

About the Author: Heather Butts is an instructor of bioethics and public health law at Columbia University and adjunct professor at Saint John's School of Law.  At Columbia University she has served on the institutional review board. She received degrees from Princeton University, Saint John's University School of Law, a master's degree from Harvard University's School of Public Health. She is the author of Alexander Thomas Augusta: Physician, Teacher and Human Rights Activist.