News From the Department
Leonard Medical School Historical Highway Marker
For more information contact Fay Mitchell Henderson at (919) 807-7389.
( RALEIGH—Oct. 9) -- At a time when professional medical care was generally unavailable to African Americans, the Leonard Medical School was established at Shaw University in Raleigh in 1882. On Wednesday, Oct. 11, a N.C. Highway Historical Marker will be unveiled at noon following a program at 11 a.m., at the Thomas Boyd Chapel at Shaw University. The marker will be placed in front of Leonard Hall on Wilmington Street.
N.C. Department of Cultural Resources Secretary Lisbeth C. Evans will join Shaw University President Clarence G. Newsome in the unveiling to commemorate the medical school. Leonard offered the nation’s first four-year graded medical school curriculum and graduated approximately 400 doctors, most of whom practiced in the rural South. The Leonard Hospital opened in 1885 and provided beds to the sick and poor of the local black community and valuable experience to the medical students. Financial difficulties led to the closing of the hospital in 1914 and of the medical school in 1918.
For additional information, contact Mike Hill at 919-807-7289. For additional information on the marker program, visit www.ncmarkers.com. The N.C. Highway Historical Marker program, in the Office of Archives and History in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture. For more information about the Department of Cultural Resources visit www.ncculture.com.
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