Charles Burleigh Purvis

Biography

Dr. Charles Burleigh Purvis (April 14, 1842 – December 14, 1929) was an African-American physician who resided in Washington, D.C. Among the founders of the medical school at Howard University, he was the first African-American physician to attend a sitting president of the United States when he attended to President James Garfield after he was shot. Purvis was also the first black physician to head a hospital under civilian authority, when he was appointed as surgeon-in-charge of the Freedmen's Hospital that same year, as well as the first African-American person to serve on the D.C. Board of Medical Examiners and the second black instructor at an American medical school.

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