Alpha Phi Alpha’s Julian Herman Lewis Was One of the First Black People to Earn Both a Ph.D. and an M.D.

Did you know that one of the first African Americans to earn both a Ph.D. and an M.D. was a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. who used his science to dismantle the myth of racial inferiority? His name was Dr. Julian Herman Lewis, and he was one of the most accomplished physician-scientists of his era.

Julian Herman Lewis was born on May 26, 1891, in Shawneetown, Illinois. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois in 1911 and a master’s there in 1912. He went on to the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in physiology and pathology in 1915, winning the university’s Ricketts Prize, and then completed his M.D. at Rush Medical College in 1917. He is believed to be the first African American to hold both a Ph.D. and an M.D.

Lewis was a brother of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., the first intercollegiate Greek-letter fraternity established for African Americans, founded in 1906 at Cornell University. While earning his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, he was initiated into Alpha Phi Alpha through the Theta Chapter in 1913, and he later became a charter member of the fraternity’s Xi Lambda alumni chapter in Chicago in 1924. He was known throughout Alpha Phi Alpha as a keen and forceful speaker. In December 1925 he delivered the keynote address at the fraternity’s national convention in Detroit, and he remained a featured speaker at Alpha Phi Alpha gatherings around the country.

Shortly after earning his M.D., Lewis joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, becoming its first Black faculty member. According to the University of Chicago Library, he taught and conducted research there for roughly three decades, rising to associate professor in the Department of Pathology. He was also the first African American inducted into the scientific research society Sigma Xi. In 1926, Lewis was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, one of the earliest classes of Guggenheim Fellows, and used it to conduct research at the University of Basel in Switzerland and in Vienna.

In 1942, Lewis published his landmark book, The Biology of the Negro. As BlackPast notes, the work presented extensive scientific evidence debunking racist claims that tied supposed Black inferiority to biology, a bold undertaking in its time.

Lewis later served as chief pathologist at Provident Hospital in Chicago and held pathology leadership positions at several other hospitals. He died on March 6, 1989, in Chicago at the age of 97.

From the laboratories of the University of Chicago to the pages of The Biology of the Negro, Alpha Phi Alpha’s Julian Herman Lewis used science itself to fight for the dignity of Black people.

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