.png){kind=small}
The Black Figures Who Changed Medicine—But Weren’t Given Credit
- KhadiYah Preciado
- Jun 19
- 3 min read
We’ve always had brilliance in our blood.
Before textbooks,
before stethoscopes,
before institutions gave us degrees,
We didn’t need to prove what we already carried,
we had hands that knew,
eyes that discerned,
and hearts that served.
We’re not just herbalists.
We come from healers.
Imhotep:
Long before Hippocrates, there was Imhotep.
An architect and physician of Kemet who built pyramids and treated patients.
His name still echoes through the halls of medicine,
even though they've tried to erase the true origin.
Daniel Hale Williams:
Dr. Williams wasn’t supposed to perform heart surgery in 1893.
Not in a time when Black surgeons weren’t even allowed in most hospitals.
But he did.
Successfully.
He founded Provident Hospital, the first interracial hospital in the U.S.
He didn’t wait for permission to save lives.
He made a place where Black healing could live.
Charles Drew:
Dr. Drew didn’t just study blood.
He understood it.
Created blood banks.
Standardized transfusions.
Saved soldiers in wars that barely acknowledged his humanity.
And when they told him he couldn’t give blood because of his race,
he kept saving anyway.
Because medicine, real medicine, doesn’t discriminate.
Jane Cooke Wright:
Her father was a doctor.
She became one too—and better.
Dr. Jane Cooke Wright didn’t just treat cancer—she transformed how we fight it.
She developed early chemotherapy protocols by testing drugs on human tumors, not lab mice.
That was revolutionary.
She mapped how medicine moved through real tissue.
Personalized the process.
Precision medicine, as they rightfully termed it.
She became the highest-ranking Black woman in American academic medicine by the 1960s.
She wasn’t invited to the table—
but the blueprint they follow is hers.
Henrietta Lacks:
And the very cells used to prove those therapies?
Came from another Black woman whose name they didn’t bother to ask.
They took from her without permission.
Scraped cells from Henrietta Lacks’ body and built a billion-dollar legacy in secret.
Her tissue—HeLa—became the foundation of vaccines, chemo drugs, and genetic breakthroughs.
But her family never saw credit, payment, or justice.
Jane built the method.
Henrietta became the means.
Two Black women—one respected, one erased—both essential.
We speak their names now, because Black women have always been the source.
Ben Carson:
Dr. Carson separated conjoined twins.
The risk was unthinkable.
The stakes were life or death.
Still, he did it with steady hands and an even steadier spirit.
Black hands have always held power, even in the most delicate places.
This is Our Inheritance
You come from a people who healed under pressure,
who memorized remedies because paper was denied,
who passed down medicine in plaits, not textbooks.
What you hold now—your formulas, your assessments, your wisdom—is not random.
It’s what they protected.
You don’t need the world’s validation to do this work with excellence.
But you do need conviction.
You need discipline.
You need to know whose blood you carry.
Whether you compound in the back room or cut in the operating room—this is sacred work.
This is Black medicine excellence.
And it didn’t start with you.
But it continues through you.
✨ Ready to Learn Herbalism the Safe Way?
If reading this stirred something in you—if you're ready to not just celebrate our legacy but live it out—I've got two powerful next steps:
1. Enroll in the Free 4 Levels of Herb Safety Mini Course
Too many herbalists skip the safety foundation. This free class walks you through the 4 Levels of Herb Safety, so you can confidently choose herbs for yourself, your clients, or your community—without fear or confusion.
2. Take 19% Off All Books Until June 23
From foundational plant knowledge to practitioner-level guides, every book in our collection is 19% off for Juneteenth—no code needed.
This is your time to study, grow, and serve with confidence.
Honor the past by preparing for your future.
Comments