title: Crooked path made straight: the rise and fall of the southern governors' plan to educate black physicians.
abstract: In 1945, a wave of GI-Bill-supported African American students, qualified for admission to medical schools, returned from their service in World War II. The possibility that their acceptance would integrate all-white medical schools was a problem for the southern governors. The governors responded with a carefully considered plan to shunt these African American applicants to historically black medical colleges by joining in a Compact and attempting to purchase Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee. This untold story of American medicine and its connection to our present shortage of African American physicians in the South needs to be remembered and passed on to future generations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, MS 39216, USA. rdeshazo@umc.edu
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: deShazo
authors.forename: Keydron K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Guinn
authors.forename: Wayne J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Riley
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Winter
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000266:history*; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000266:history; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D063505:Racism / Q000266:history*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000266:history*; D015144:Southeastern United States; D013714:Tennessee