Last week, we learned about Hamilton Naki, a black South African, who, though he had never been allowed to study in medical school because of his color, was a brilliant surgeon and teacher, working with famed cardiac surgeon, Christian Barnard.

This week, we shift back to America; although apartheid in South Africa was heinous, truly racial apartheid had roots deep in American culture. Because of their color, Americans of African descent were denied all kinds of rights and privileges, including the right and the privilege to attend school.

That didn't stop our ancestors, not in any field, including medicine. The first African American physician in America, not formally trained, was James Derham. Born into slavery in 1757, he was owned by three doctors; his third owner, Dr. Robert Love, encouraged him to practice medicine.

James McCune Smith was the first university-trained physician. He received his MD degree from the University of Glascow, in Scotland, in 1837, after having completed requirements for a B.A., and an M.A. from the same university.

David J. Peck, however, was the first African American to graduate from medical school in this country. His father was a noted abolitionist, minister and businessman, and was able to make a way for his children, even as he stressed to them the importance of education, no matter the opposition. From 1844 to 1846, young Peck studied medicine under Dr. Joseph Gazzam, a white anti-slavery physician. After studying with Dr. Gazzam for two years, Peck entered Rush Medical College and graduated from there in 1847. After he graduated, Peck traveled the United States with Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

Dr. Peck practiced medicine in this country for two years, but, persuaded by Martin Delaney, went to Central America to help form a homeland for free blacks in that country. He remained in Central American until at least 1855, but nothing is known of him after that.

In January, 1984, a plaque in honor of Dr. Peck was dedicated at Rush Medical College. It reads: “Dr David Peck was graduated from the Rush Medical College in 1847 and was the first American black to receive a doctor of medicine degree from an America medical school.”