Money versus mission at an African-American medical school: Knoxville College Medical Department, 1895-1900

Bull Hist Med. 2001 Winter;75(4):680-716. doi: 10.1353/bhm.2001.0191.

Abstract

Knoxville College Medical Department (KCMD) was, to all appearances, a missionary medical school established in 1895 by a small black Presbyterian college in the Tennessee mountains to train African-American physicians. In reality, it functioned as a proprietary medical school organized and operated by a group of local white physicians who were more interested in making money than in furthering the school's mission of educating black Christian physicians. KCMD limped along until 1900 when the college's new president reported to the trustees about the white faculty's greed, irreligious behavior, poor teaching, and bad medical reputation, and about how the presence of the medical school on campus undermined the college's overall mission. KCMD graduated two students before closing its doors in 1900. A group of faculty then reopened the school off-campus as the Knoxville Medical College. That school closed in 1910.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Black or African American / history*
  • Education, Medical / economics
  • Education, Medical / history*
  • History, 19th Century
  • History, 20th Century
  • Humans
  • Missionaries
  • Organizational Objectives / economics
  • Physicians / history
  • Private Sector / economics
  • Private Sector / history
  • Religious Missions / history*
  • Schools, Medical / history*
  • Tennessee
  • United States