Resolution and Remarks in the Senate, on the Exclusion of Colored Physicians from the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, December 9, 1869.
I offer the following resolution, and ask for its immediate consideration:—
Resolved, That the Committee on the District of Columbia be directed to consider the expediency of repealing the charter of the Medical Society of the District of Columbia, and of such other legislation as may be necessary in order to secure for medical practitioners in the District of Columbia equal rights and opportunities without distinction of color.
I hope there can be no objection to this proposition, which has become necessary from a recent incident. A medical practitioner in Washington, Dr. Augusta, who had served as a surgeon in the Army of the United States and was brevetted as a Lieutenant-Colonel, who had enjoyed office and honor under the National Government, has been excluded from the Medical Society of the District of Columbia on that old reason so often and persistently urged, merely of color. It is true that Dr. Augusta is guilty of a skin which is a shade different from that prevailing in the Medical Society, but nobody can impeach his character or his professional position. Dr. Purvis, another practitioner, obnoxious only from the skin, was excluded at the same time. There is no doubt that this was accomplished by an organized effort, quickened by color-phobia.
This exclusion, besides its stigma on a race, is a practical injury to these gentlemen, and to their patients also, who are thus shut out from valuable opportunities and advantages. By a rule of the Medical Society, “No member of this association shall consult with or meet in a professional way any resident practitioner of the District who is not a member thereof, after said practitioner shall have resided six months in said District.” Thus do members of the Society constitute themselves a medical oligarchy. When asked to consult with Dr. Augusta, some of them have replied: “We would like to consult with Dr. Augusta; we believe him to be a good doctor; but he does not belong to our Society, and therefore we must decline; but we will take charge of the case”: and this has been sometimes done. Is not this a hardship? Should it be allowed to exist?
Details illustrate still further the character of this wrong. These colored practitioners are licensed, like members of the Society; but this license does not give them the privilege of attending the meetings of the Society, where medical and surgical subjects are discussed, and where peculiar and interesting cases with their appropriate treatment are communicated for the benefit of the profession; so that they are shut out from this interesting source of information, which is like a constant education, and also from the opportunity of submitting the cases in their own practice.
I confess, Sir, that I cannot think of the medical profession at the National Capital engaged in this warfare on their colored brethren without sentiments which it is difficult to restrain. Their conduct, in its direct effect, degrades a long-suffering and deeply injured race; but it also degrades themselves. Nobody can do such a meanness without degradation. In my opinion these white oligarchs ought to have notice, and I give them notice now, that this outrage shall not be allowed to continue without remedy, if I can obtain it through Congress. The time has passed for any such pretension.
I hope, Sir, there can be no objection to the resolution. It ought to pass unanimously. Who will array himself on the side of this wrong?
The resolution was agreed to, and the Committee proceeded to a full investigation, of which they made extended report,[184] accompanied by a bill for the repeal of the Society’s charter; but adverse influence, continued through two sessions to the expiration of the Congress, succeeded in preventing action.