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The Untold Stories of Black History
The Knightly News is highlighting nine Black and African Americans across various fields who have broken barriers and distinguished themselves through their lives and careers.
Charles Richard Drew
Charles Richard Drew’s breakthroughs in research with blood transfusion and preservation benefited the United States during World War II and beyond. Even though he was recruited to Amherst College in 1922 for scholarships in football and track and field, Drew later found his true calling — the laboratory. He would eventually get his medical degrees at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine, garnering recognition and graduating second in his class. During a subsequent internship in Montreal, he became more interested in exploring transfusion medicines that would shape his later research with blood banks as he began working at Howard University and became the first African American a doctorate in science at Columbia University in 1940. Not long after this accomplishment, Drew became the medical director for the Blood of Britain project to transport blood and plasma overseas during World War II. He also created “bloodmobiles,” mobile trucks that stored donated blood. His work saved thousands of lives during the war, and has shaped America’s future blood banks and systems for preserving and storing blood.
The Knightly News 