Charles Richard Drew was born on June 3, 1904, and died on April 1, 1950. He was an American surgeon and scientist who studied blood transfusions. He created better methods for storing blood and helped establish large blood banks before World War II began. These efforts helped medical workers save the lives of many Allied soldiers during the war. Drew was one of the most well-known African American doctors at the time. He opposed the practice of separating blood donations based on race, as this had no scientific support. Because of this, he left his job with the American Red Cross, an organization that continued this policy until 1950.

Early life and education

Drew was born in 1904 into an African-American middle-class family in Washington, D.C. His father, Richard, worked as a carpet layer, and his mother, Nora Burrell, was trained as a teacher. Drew and three of his younger siblings—two sisters and one brother—grew up in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, which was mostly middle-class and included people of different races. From a young age, Drew worked as a newspaper boy, delivering over a thousand newspapers daily to his neighbors. He attended Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C., a school known for offering equal opportunities despite the racial challenges of the time. From 1920 until his marriage in 1939, Drew lived in Arlington County, Virginia. However, he graduated from Dunbar High School in 1922 and lived elsewhere during that time.

Drew received an athletic scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he played football and track and field. He graduated in 1926. After college, Drew worked for two years (1926–1928) as a professor of chemistry and biology, the first athletic director, and football coach at Morgan College in Baltimore, Maryland. He did this to earn money for medical school.

To pursue medicine, Drew applied to Howard University, Harvard Medical School, and later McGill University in Canada. He did not meet all the requirements for Howard University, and Harvard asked him to wait a year. To begin medical school immediately, Drew chose to attend McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

At McGill, Drew studied blood transfusions and shock therapy with John Beattie. Shock happens when the body loses a lot of blood quickly, which can result from wounds or dehydration. During shock, blood pressure and body temperature drop, causing poor blood flow and oxygen loss in tissues. Researchers discovered that blood transfusions could help treat shock, but at the time, there was no way to transport or store blood safely, limiting transfusions to specific locations.

At McGill, Drew joined Alpha Omega Alpha, an honor society for medical students. He ranked second in his class of 127 students and received a Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree in 1933.

Drew’s first job as a faculty instructor was in pathology at Howard University from 1935 to 1936. He later worked at Freedman’s Hospital, a facility linked to Howard University, as an instructor in surgery and assistant surgeon. In 1938, Drew began graduate studies at Columbia University in New York City with a two-year Rockefeller fellowship in surgery. He earned a Doctor of Science in Surgery at Columbia University. During this time, he researched at Columbia’s Presbyterian Hospital and wrote a thesis titled Banked Blood: A Study on Blood Preservation. His research showed that blood plasma could be preserved for two months longer by separating the liquid part from blood cells. When needed, the plasma could be restored to its original state. This work earned Drew a Doctor of Science in Medicine degree in 1940, making him the first African American to receive this degree. The American Medical Association in Washington, D.C., only allowed white doctors to join. Drew died before the organization accepted him.

Blood for Britain

In late 1940, before the United States joined World War II and shortly after completing his doctorate, Drew was asked by John Scudder to help create an early program for storing and preserving blood. Drew used his research to help keep blood safe and transport it. His task was to collect, test, and send large amounts of blood plasma to the United Kingdom. Drew knew that removing plasma from blood required using a machine called a centrifuge and carefully extracting the liquid. Each step was done under controlled conditions to prevent contamination. Methods such as air filters, ultraviolet light, and a chemical called Merthiolate were used to reduce the chance of plasma becoming polluted.

Drew became the medical director of the United States’ Blood for Britain project in New York City. There, he helped establish rules for other hospitals donating blood plasma to Britain. He made sure that blood transfusions were clean and that proper sterile methods were used to send usable plasma to the United Kingdom. The Blood for Britain project aimed to help British soldiers and civilians by providing U.S. blood to the United Kingdom.

Drew set up a central place where people could donate blood. He tested all collected plasma before sending it. He ensured only trained workers handled the plasma to avoid contamination. The Blood for Britain program worked successfully for five months. During this time, nearly 15,000 people donated blood, and over 5,500 vials of plasma were collected. Because of this, the Blood Transfusion Betterment Association praised Drew for his work.

American Red Cross Blood Bank

Drew became the director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank in February 1941. He also created bloodmobiles, which are vehicles that travel to collect blood and keep it cool. This made it easier to transport blood and increased the number of people who could donate. The blood bank provided blood to the U.S. Army and Navy. At first, these groups refused to use blood from African-Americans, but later they accepted it only if it was kept separate from blood from White people. Drew disagreed with this unfair treatment and quit his job in 1942 to show his opposition.

Academic achievements

In 1941, Drew was honored for his work when he became the first African-American surgeon chosen to be an examiner on the American Board of Surgery.

He had a long career in research and teaching, returning to Freedman's Hospital and Howard University in 1942 to work as a surgeon and teach medicine. In 1944, he received the Spingarn Medal from the NAACP for his contributions to British and American projects. He was given an honorary science doctor degree first by Virginia State College in 1945, and later by Amherst in 1947.

Personal life

In 1939, Drew married Minnie Lenore Robbins, a professor of home economics at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, whom he had met earlier that same year. They had three daughters and a son. His daughter, Charlene Drew Jarvis, was a member of the Council of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 2000, served as president of Southeastern University from 1996 until 2009, and was president of the District of Columbia Chamber of Commerce.

Death

In 1939, Drew went to Tuskegee, Alabama, to visit the free clinic at John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital. For the 1950 Tuskegee clinic, Drew traveled with three other Black doctors. On April 1, Drew was driving around 8 a.m. He was still tired from working late into the night in the operating room. He lost control of the car. The vehicle swerved into a field and rolled over three times. The other three doctors had minor injuries. Drew was trapped and seriously hurt; his foot became stuck under the brake pedal.

Emergency workers found Drew in shock and barely alive because of his severe leg injuries. He was taken to Alamance General Hospital in Burlington, North Carolina. He was declared dead about 30 minutes after receiving medical care. Drew’s funeral was held on April 5, 1950, at Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.

A popular story claims Drew died because he was refused hospital care because of his race. This story was shared in a TV show called MASH and in books like Carrion Comfort, The 480, and The Human Stain*. However, this is not true. John Ford, one of the people in Drew’s car, said Drew’s injuries were so serious that nothing could have saved him. Ford also said a blood transfusion might have caused Drew to die faster. This story spread because, at the time, it was common for Black people to be denied treatment due to a lack of beds for Black patients or because some hospitals only served white people.

Legacy

• In 1976, the National Park Service named the Charles Richard Drew House in Arlington County, Virginia, a National Historic Landmark after the Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation submitted a nomination.
• In 1981, the United States Postal Service released a 35¢ stamp in its Great Americans series to honor Charles Richard Drew.
• The Charles Richard Drew Memorial Bridge connects the Edgewood and Brookland neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.
• The USNS Charles Drew is a dry cargo ship in the United States Navy.
• Parc Charles-Drew is a park in Le Sud-Ouest, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Drew in his list of the 100 Greatest African Americans.

Many schools, health centers, and other organizations have been named in Drew’s honor, such as the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.
• In 1966, the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School was created in California to honor Drew. This later became the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.
• Charles Drew Health Center, Omaha, Nebraska
• Charles Drew Science Enrichment Laboratory, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
• Charles Drew Health Foundation, East Palo Alto, California, operated from the 1960s to 2000 and was the only clinic in the community for many years.
• Charles Drew Community Health Center, Burlington, North Carolina, near the site of the old Alamance County hospital.
• Charles Drew Pre-Health Society, University of Rochester
• Charles R Drew Wellness Center, Columbia, South Carolina
• Dr. Charles Drew Red Cross Blood and Platelet Donation Center, Washington, D.C.
• Charles R. Drew Hall, an all-male freshman dormitory at Howard University, Washington, D.C.
• Charles Drew Memorial Cultural House, a residence at Amherst College, Drew’s alma mater.
• Charles Drew Premedical Society, Columbia University, New York

• Charles R. Drew Middle School & Magnet School for the Gifted, opened in 1966 by Los Angeles Unified School District (archived in 2021).
• Charles R. Drew Middle School, Lincoln, Alabama, operated by Talladega County Schools.
• Charles R. Drew Junior High School, Detroit, Michigan.
• Dr. Charles R. Drew Science Magnet School, Buffalo, New York.
• Charles R. Drew Elementary School, Miami Beach and Pompano Beach, Florida.
• Bluford Drew Jemison S.T.E.M. Academy, Baltimore (closed in 2013).
• Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy West, a middle/high school in Baltimore, Maryland.
• Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School, Colesville, Maryland.
• Charles Drew Elementary School, Washington, D.C.
• Charles R. Drew Elementary School, Arlington, Virginia.
• Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School, New Orleans, Louisiana.
• Charles R. Drew Charter School, opened in August 2000 as Atlanta, Georgia’s first charter school.
• Dr. Charles Drew Academy, Ecorse, Michigan.
• Drew Academy, Houston, Texas (Aldine ISD).
• Charles R. Drew Intermediate School, Crosby, Texas.
• Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School, San Francisco, California.
• Charles Richard Drew Intermediate School / Charles Richard Drew Educational Campus, Bronx, New York.