14 Lesser-Known Black Americans Who Changed Our Country For the Better

After graduating from Northwestern University Medical School in 1883, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams established his own training hospital in Chicago to remedy the fact that black doctors were not allowed to practice in white hospitals. Dr. Williams performed the second successful pericardium heart surgery on record in 1893, the first African-American surgeon to do so. In 1895, he cofounded the National Medical Association for African-American doctors. He is mentioned in the Stevie Wonder song "Black Man."