Renaissance Men

The gripping, untold stories of three unsung Black physicians and their critical contributions to the field of medicine and American culture, from the National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Medical Apartheid.

Between 1847 and 1952, three New York City doctors transformed medicine, catalyzed racial equity, elevated American culture, then were all but lost to history—until now.

James McCune Smith, MD., Rudolph Fisher, MD., and Louis T. Wright, MD each helped shape our nation and advance medicine while sharing overlapping passions—an uncompromising, even militant opposition to racial fetters; medical research that refused racial denigration; and literary acumen. While not strictly contemporaries, they were bound across time through obstacles that parallel those we confront today. Medical exclusion and disparagement, rampant healthcare inequities paired with housing segregation, racial abuse and police violence, lynching, the suppression of Black history—and even racial bars to higher medical education—that mirrored today’s challenges to affirmative action.

In this comprehensive slice of previously unrevealed history, renowned writer and scholar Harriet Washington sheds light on Black physicians who pioneered important medical achievements that benefit the health of all Americans. Renaissance Men draws parallels between contemporary and historical medical exclusion and healthcare inequities and reveals a powerful argument for supporting current medical aspirants of color. Surfacing this long-buried history shows us what genius we stand to lose if medicine doesn’t rectify its current course of racial exclusion.

• “James McCune Smith, Rudolph Fisher, Louis T. Wright: if like the majority of Americans, you have not heard the names of these three luminary physician-scholars whose careers trace a century of literary innovation and scientific genius in the medical metropolis of New York City, this is not by accident. Simultaneously lauded and excluded in their own times, subsequently forgotten and recovered here though the unrelenting research and clear prose of Harriet Washington, the lives of the three figures of Renaissance Men trace an alternate stitching of science and society past and present. In this remarkable book, Washington has crafted an uplifting prosopography of possibility for what the field of medicine can be, a reminder of the stories we fail to tell in the face of recurring forces of racialized exclusion and erasure, and the urgent need for their recovery and repair to resolve the stark disparities that continue to mark American public health and the face of the profession of medicine.”
  Jeremy A. Greene, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute of the History of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
• "In her latest hard-hitting book, Harriet Washington narrates like she’s sitting with you in the room, keeping you on the edge of your seat with gripping and rich accounts of these remarkable men’s lives, while spotlighting how these stories provide a much-needed perspective on issues of health and justice today."
  Anna Reisman, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director, Program for Humanities in Medicine and Co-Director, Program for Art in Public Spaces, Yale School of Medicine
• "Washington, our most essential chronicler of race, discovery, and medicine, vividly recovers three Black physicians from undeserved obscurity—revealing a hidden American intellectual tradition that could not be more urgently needed in this moment. McCune Smith, Fisher, and Wright wielded rigorous science, exacting statistics, and extraordinary literary gifts against racial pseudoscience, producing true innovations that benefit us all."
  Alondra Nelson, PhD, Institute for Advanced Study, and author of The Social Life of DNA
• "An important work of African American intellectual history, Renaissance Men offers vivid portraits of three men who were not marginal figures awaiting admission to modern medicine but were among its makers. With her characteristic narrative force and historical precision, Washington shows that they, and so many other Black physicians, did not simply endure medical racism; they exposed its falsehoods, rebuilt its institutions, and saved lives in spite of it. Laying bare the political fiction that Black professional inclusion meant lowered standards, Washington reveals the more powerful truth: American medicine advanced because Black physicians forced it to become more scientific, more ethical, and more humane."
  Samuel K. Roberts, PhD, Associate Professor of History and of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
• "Once again, scholar and author Harriet Washington has shined a spotlight on the remarkable achievements of overlooked, multi-talented pioneering Black physicians. With rigorous research and engaging storytelling, Renaissance Men is an ambitious analysis and a must-read for every doctor and for anyone who wants a complete picture of American history."
  Randi Hutter Epstein, MD, MPH, MS, and author of Aroused: The History of Hormones and How They Control Just About Everything
• “A powerful and essential work of history, Renaissance Men restores Black physicians to their rightful place at the center of the American story. Deeply researched and elegantly written, this book offers a compelling account of intellectual courage, moral leadership, and the enduring struggle for health equity. It is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand the past, present, and future of American medicine.”
  Keisha N. Blain, PhD, author of Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights
• "Harriet Washington brings Black physicians into fuller view as makers of medical, scientific, and cultural modernity. Through the lives of James McCune Smith, Rudolph Fisher, and Louis T. Wright, Washington shows that these men were not simply accomplished doctors or exceptional “firsts,” but physicians, scientists, writers, and public intellectuals for whom medicine was part of a broader struggle against racial constraint. As a work of historical recovery, Renaissance Men challenges the manufactured invisibility of Black Americans in modern medicine and asks how that history might look if Black genius were incorporated rather than resisted."
  Ezelle Sanford III, PhD, Assistant Professor of History, Carnegie Mellon University
• "Harriet Washington has once again delivered a riveting work. As a black psychiatrist now forty-eight years post residency, I'm inspired by the tremendous barriers these men overcame to pave the way for me and others. There are clear messages from nearly a century ago that are resoundingly relevant today for all to learn, regardless of race or walk of life. I salute Washington for educating us about our proud history steeped in achieving and overcoming. She is a literary jewel."
  David Smith, MD, Psychiatrist
• "Well researched and clearly presented, Washington’s account reveals the prodigious physical and intellectual energies of these individuals...Renaissance Men has gifted readers with a rich and informative history."
  John McCluskey, Jr., Professor Emeritus, Dept. of African American and African Diaspora Studies & English, Indiana University, Bloomington, and editor of The City of Refuge: Collected Stories of Rudolph Fisher
• "Harriet Washington takes readers on a gripping, unflinching, historical journey into the lives of Black doctors—brilliant, courageous, and determined to heal their communities against all odds. For them, 'do no harm' meant literally dodging bullets while they fought for excellence in their fields. A vital, unforgettable story of academic excellence, survival, and resistance."
  Dr. Janet Taylor, Psychiatrist
• "Harriet Washington unearths the remarkable lives of three Black physicians who, despite race-based exclusion and other obstacles, possessed genius, courage, and persistence that ‘made a way out of no way.’ As medical schools once again face pressure to shut their doors to Black applicants, this little-known history speaks urgently to us in the present. It is as relevant today as it was then.”
  Hilda Y. Hutcherson, MD, Professor Emerita of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center
• "Renaissance Men is a joy to read and a rebuke to the erasure of our full past. Washington is at her most formidable filling historical silences, and at her most capacious in showing that these men were never alone. Their lives are a triple thread, part of a legacy of Black excellence that American medicine was built on and has never adequately acknowledged."
  Lakshmi Krishnan, MD, PhD, Founding Director, Medical Humanities Initiative, Georgetown University
• "With her signature boldness and courage, Harriet Washington chronicles how extraordinary Black physicians, intellectuals, and advocates persevered despite substantial barriers embedded across government, medicine, the press, and popular culture. Her analysis of the Flexner Report and the historical erasure that followed is especially compelling. In Renaissance Men, Washington transforms complex subject matter into vivid, accessible stories of resilient figures who advanced medicine, public safety, and the opportunities available to future generations."
  Devi E. Nampiaparampil, MD, MS Medical Director, Metropolis Pain Medicine, Clinical Associate Professor, NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Fox 5 NY Medical Contributor