02/26/2025
In honor of Black History Month, MedStar Home Health Services is spotlighting African American pioneers in Medicine.
SOLOMON CARTER FULLER (1872 – 1953)
The first African American Psychiatrist
He was an early 20th-century psychiatrist, researcher, and medical educator was born on August 11, 1872, in Monrovia, Liberia. His parents were Americo-Liberians. He also performed pioneering work with neuropathologist, Alois Alzheimer conducting considerable research concerning degenerative diseases of the brain, such as dementia.
Solomon’s grandfather was a Virginia slave who bought his and his wife’s freedom The grandparents emigrated to Liberia in 1852 to help establish a settlement of African Americans.
Fuller showed an interest in medicine, especially since his grandparents were medical missionaries in Liberia. In 1889, Solomon migrated to the United States to attend Livingstone College in North Carolina. He then completed his medical degree at the Boston University School of Medicine in 1897. In 1909 Fuller married Meta Vaux Warrick Fuller, an internationally known sculptor. The couple had three children, Solomon C., William T., and Perry J. Fuller.
Solomon Fuller’s major contribution was to the growing clinical knowledge of Alzheimer’s disease. As part of his post-graduate studies at the University of Munich (Germany), Fuller researched pathology and specifically neuropathology. In 1903 Solomon Carter Fuller was chosen by Alois Alzheimer to do research at the Royal Psychiatric Hospital at the University of Munich. He also helped correctly diagnose and train others to correctly diagnose the side effects of syphilis to prevent black war veterans from getting misdiagnosed, discharged, and ineligible for military benefits. He trained these young doctors at the Veteran’s Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama before the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiments (1932-1972).
Through much of his early career (1899-1933) Fuller was employed with Boston University’s School of Medicine where the highest position he attained was an associate professor. After losing his eyesight in 1944, Fuller was unable to continue practicing and passed away in 1953, at the age of 81 years, due to advanced diabetes. In 1974, the Black Psychiatrists of America created the Solomon Carter Fuller Program for young black aspiring psychiatrists to complete their residency. The Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center in Boston is also named after Dr. Fuller.
Source: Wikipedia
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