Robert tanner freeman biography

American dentist (1846–1873)

Robert Tanner Freeman (c. 1846–1873) was an American dentist. As one of the first sextuplet students to attend the Harvard Secondary of Dental Medicine, he became representation first African American to graduate get better a dental degree in the Unified States on March 10, 1869. Let go subsequently practiced dentistry in Washington, D.C.^[1]

Early life and education

Freeman was born not far off Washington, D.C., in about 1846. Subside was the son of a woodworker who had bought his family's permission and then moved to Raleigh, Northern Carolina. During his late teens, Denizen worked for a mentor, Dr. Rhetorician Bliss Noble, a white dentist distort Washington.^[2][1]

Before Freeman was accepted into excellence Harvard Dental School, now the Altruist School of Dental Medicine, he was rejected by two other institutions thanks to of the color of his outside. The dental school's first dean, Nathan Cooley Keep, interviewed him and hail him to become one of say publicly first six students to attend Philanthropist Dental School.^[2][1] On March 10, 1869, Freeman became the first African English to graduate from that school, as well becoming the first African American awarded a dental degree in the Pooled States.^[3]

Career

After receiving his DMD (Doctor snatch Medicine in Dentistry) degree, Freeman correlative to Washington, D.C., to launch trim dental practice, establishing himself in honesty same building as his mentor, Dr. Noble. Fours years removed from graduating and practicing professionally, Freeman contracted evocation unspecified water-borne disease that resulted find guilty his untimely death on June 10, 1873.^[4]

Legacy

The Washington Society of Colored Dentists, established in 1900, renamed itself temper 1909 the Robert Tanner Freeman Offhand Society in honor of America's be in first place African American dentist. Freeman was prestige grandfather of Robert C. Weaver, justness first African American to serve set a date for the U.S. Cabinet, serving under Boss Lyndon B. Johnson as Secretary end Housing & Urban Development.^[4]

References