Meharry Medical College

Meharry Medical College is a private, historically Black academic health sciences center located in the North Nashville neighborhood of Nashville, Tennessee. One of the nation's oldest and largest historically Black academic health science centers, it is dedicated to educating physicians, dentists, researchers, and health policy experts. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South. A private institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church, Meharry has spent nearly 150 years training healthcare professionals committed to serving underserved communities across the country and around the world. Meharry has graduated nearly 15 percent of all Black physicians and dentists practicing in the United States. The college's guiding motto — "Worship of God Through Service to Mankind" — reflects the humanitarian purpose that has defined the institution from its earliest days.

Founding and Early History

The founding motivation was to train aspiring caregivers to serve not only newly freed African Americans but also all who were deprived of and needed medical attention. The founder and first president of Meharry Medical College was New Hampshire native George Whipple Hubbard (1841–1921), a former Union soldier who had received his medical degree from the University of Nashville.

Students at Central Tennessee College (CTC) approached the college president about setting up a medical school in 1875. The president, John Braden, approached Samuel Meharry to discuss the proposal. In 1875, Meharry, together with four of his brothers, donated a total of $15,000 to assist with establishing a medical department at CTC, a historically Black college in Nashville, Tennessee. Meharry's inception was part of the Freedman's Aid Society's continuing effort to educate freed slaves and to provide health care services for the poor and underserved.

With the contribution of the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, George W. Hubbard and Braden, they opened the Medical College at CTC in 1876 with a starting class of nine students. The classes took place in the basement of the Clark Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church. The first regular year of classes began in October 1876 and had eleven students in that group. The medical program was initially two years long, but they added an additional year in 1879 and a fourth year to the course of study in 1893.

By 1896, half of all "regularly educated physicians then practicing in the South" had graduated from Meharry. The college's reach expanded steadily in the following decades. Meharry's dental and pharmaceutical departments were organized in 1886 and 1889, respectively. A nurse-training school was also developed during the 1900–1901 school year and the first class had eight students. A training hospital, Mercy Hospital, was built during the 1901–1902 school year. This hospital was replaced in 1916 and named the George W. Hubbard Hospital.

In 1900, CTC changed its name to Walden University. In 1915, the medical department faculty of Walden University received a separate charter to operate independently as Meharry Medical College. The college continued to be privately funded.

Accreditation, Setbacks, and the Move to North Nashville

Meharry's early decades were not without difficulty. Its reputation suffered in 1914 when it was dropped to Class B status. Abraham Flexner of the General Education Board (a Rockefeller program) provided advice and funding to rebuild its status. As a result in 1923, Meharry was restored to a "grade-A institution" by the American Medical Association (AMA).

On February 1, 1921, John J. Mullowney, a 1908 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a former faculty member of Girard College in Philadelphia, became the second president of Meharry. Under his leadership, admission requirements were rigorously administered; the number of faculty members increased; research and hospital facilities were expanded, increasing the bed capacity to one hundred; outpatient clinics were reorganized according to specialty; and a hospital superintendent was employed.

With contributions from the General Education Board and the Rockefeller, Rosenwald, Eastman, and Carnegie foundations, together with assistance from the City of Nashville and Meharry alumni, the college moved from South Nashville to its present location in North Nashville, one street west of Fisk University, in the late 1920s. The later Neo-Gothic and College-Gothic architecture of the two schools' buildings would reflect the symbiotic relationship between Fisk and Meharry. By the 1930s many aspiring physicians had obtained their undergraduate and premedical education at Fisk and later graduated with their medical degrees from Meharry.

In 1938 the distinguished scholar Edward L. Turner assumed the post of president. Turner modified the curriculum of the medical school, insisting on a more scientific approach and stressing the importance of proper clinical procedures. During this time, Meharry began to experience financial difficulties, which plagued the institution throughout the 1940s. Turner resigned in 1944.

An interim administrative committee directed affairs until 1952, when Dr. Harold D. West, the first Black president of the school, began his term. Under West the school launched a $20 million fund drive, purchased land adjacent to the campus, and added a wing to the hospital.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s, 83 percent of all African American physicians had been trained at Meharry Medical College and Howard University School of Medicine. In 1970, more than 60 percent of Black medical students worked as residents at these two colleges. From 1966 to 1968 an interim committee managed Meharry until the former dean of the medical school, Lloyd Elam, was appointed president. Meharry then established a graduate school offering the Ph.D. degree in the basic sciences and a School of Allied Health Professions in conjunction with Tennessee State University and Fisk University. New buildings for the schools of medicine and dentistry and a new hospital were constructed in the 1970s.

Later 20th Century and Financial Challenges

The final decades of the twentieth century brought considerable institutional upheaval. The Hubbard Hospital, belonging to Meharry Medical College, closed in 1994 and was renovated as the new site for the Metropolitan Nashville General Hospital, opening in November 1997. The year 1994 was also a start for more renovations of campus buildings initiated by campus president, John E. Maupin Jr. The school was also suffering from a $49 million deficit and morale at the school was low. The Nashville General Hospital's lease money, however, helped bring money into the school and eventually, by June 1995, the finances of the school were stabilized.

In 1999, the college formed an alliance with Vanderbilt University. That relationship helped expand clinical training opportunities for Meharry students, though it later evolved and faced complications over the provision of inpatient care.

Into the turn of the century, Meharry had added programs in nursing, dentistry, and pharmacy. Hulda Margaret Lyttle was in the first class of graduates from Meharry's professional nurse's training program in 1910. She quickly earned a reputation for clinical excellence, and by 1915, she was appointed as the Director of Nurse Training at Meharry. She continued to rise in the ranks at Meharry, where she was appointed Superintendent of the school's hospital in 1923, and dean of the nursing school in 1938, making her the first Black dean of a nursing school in the country. Due to lack of funding, Meharry was forced to shut down the nursing school in 1964.

Academic Programs and Mission

Meharry today includes five schools: School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, School of Graduate Studies, School of Applied Computational Sciences, and School of Global Health. Graduate and professional academic programs include online, hybrid and in-person offerings in medicine, dentistry, health sciences, global health, and data science and other applications of artificial intelligence. Degrees offered include Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.), Master of Science (M.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).

A 2010 study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine ranked Meharry as one of the nation's top five producers of primary care physicians. Three out of every four Meharrians return to urban or rural communities to serve others by providing medical or dental services.

Since 1915, Meharry has remained independent, receiving its accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. The college is a private institution affiliated with the United Methodist Church with an enrollment of approximately 962 students. It is one of the nation's oldest and largest historically Black academic health science centers and is one of the 11 United Methodist Black College Fund schools.

The college's community health mission extends beyond campus. Clinics provide patient-centered care for the entire family, including dental care on campus and, through the Meharry Medical Group, an ever-growing number of clinics in the Middle Tennessee area. In addition to providing quality professional health care education, exemplary patient care, and compassionate community outreach, Meharry Medical College produces the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, a public health journal.

Recent Developments

In September 2020, philanthropist Michael Bloomberg donated $34 million to help lower student debt at the institution. Bloomberg's gift was the largest in Meharry's history.

In 2021, Meharry launched Meharry Medical College Ventures to aid in galvanizing healthcare breakthroughs and solutions to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities through forming partnerships with medical facilities across the U.S.

Meharry has also deepened its historic bond with neighboring Fisk University. Fisk University and Meharry Medical College entered into a partnership agreement giving Fisk University students focused on a career as a physician or dentist a clearly specified pathway. Under the agreement, Fisk University undergraduate students who meet strict criteria will be admitted directly into medical or dental school at Meharry.

A Tri-Institutional Seminar series has also been initiated by the School of Medicine Basic Sciences, Meharry Medical College, and Fisk University focused on trainee development and promoting collaboration and existing ties between scientists affiliated with all three institutions.

Looking ahead, Meharry's Alumni Homecoming Reunion 2026 is planned for May 13–17, 2026, marking a historic 150-year celebration of the institution's founding.

Notable Alumni and Faculty

Meharry's roster of graduates includes physicians, surgeons, civil rights figures, and international leaders who have shaped medicine and public life far beyond Nashville.

Dorothy Lavinia Brown — legislator, educator, and first Black woman surgeon in the South — graduated from Meharry Medical College. She entered Meharry in 1944 and, after the Harlem hospital where she interned denied her a surgical residency, she convinced Meharry surgical chief Matthew Walker to allow her a residency in Nashville.

Dr. Matthew Walker is said to have trained more Black surgeons — as many as half of those practicing at the time he died — than anyone else in the world. The son of a Pullman porter, he worked his way through New Orleans University and graduated from Meharry Medical College with honors in 1934.

When Josie Wells graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1904, she was both the first female graduate of Meharry and the first practicing female physician in Nashville, Black or white.

Hastings Kamuzu Banda, a Malawian politician and statesman who served as the leader of Malawi from 1964 to 1994, was also a Meharry alumnus. He served as Prime Minister from independence in 1964 to 1966, when Malawi was a Dominion/Commonwealth realm, then became the country's first president.

Since 1970, Meharry has been awarded more than 10 percent of the Ph.D.s in biomedical sciences received by African Americans. By 1986, around 46 percent of all Black faculty members in medical schools across the country had graduated from Meharry.