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Updated: Sep 28, 2025

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Published on: September 3, 2016
From a Slave to a Surgeon: David Kearney McDonogh, the First Black Otolaryngologist
David A Gudis1, Kibwei A McKinney2, Lawrence R Lustig1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
Abstract:
David McDonogh, born into chattel slavery in Louisiana in the early 1800s, accomplished the unfathomable by becoming the first Black otolaryngologist in the United States of America. With tireless determination and profound intellect, Dr McDonogh surmounted immeasurable adversity along his improbable journey to freedom and success as an eye, ear, nose, and throat doctor in New York. His doctorate in medicine was posthumously awarded to his great-great-granddaughter in 2018 by the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. In this History of Otolaryngology piece, we share his extraordinary story.
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