Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, 19th Century Cardiologist

The first man to successfully perform open heart surgery… was AFRICAN AMERICAN! Dr. Daniel Hale Williams (1858-1931) was the first licensed African American cardiologist, and in 1891 became the first physician to successfully perform a procedure on the heart where the patient actually survived. In 1893, he went on to found the Provident Hospital in Chicago, IL. He also served as surgeon-in-chief of Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. (predecessor of Howard University Hospital).