After the Civil War, HBCUs pioneered Black education in America.
Meharry Medical College: A Tale of Two School Newspapers
No items found.
Our first blog series of 2018 continues this week, focusing on the Historically Black Colleges and Universities represented in Amistad Research Center’s School Newspaper Collection. This week, we highlight two newspapers of Meharry Medical College. Meharry was founded in 1876 in Nashville, Tennessee as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College. At the time, it was the only African American medical school in the South.
Amistad holds Meharry newspapers under two different titles. The first publication, released in 1934 under the title The Sky-O-Gram, is a mixture of serious articles, updates on school activities, and humorous pieces. One page will have a case study on a young car accident victim, the next a poetic “Ode to a Skeleton.” A piece entitled “Case History of Patients Suffering with Nursing Unemploydia” bemoans the struggle to find work in the depression era, while another piece introduces a new faculty member. Peppered throughout are fly-on-the-wall hospital jokes like this side-splitter:
“What’s the commotion in the operating room?”
“A young surgeon is attempting to do a blood transfusion.”
“From the looks of the tables and floor, it is a blood confusion.”
In 1940, the school paper was seemingly relaunched as The Meharry News, and appears to take a slightly more serious bent. The first issue begins with an article entitled “Why Socialized Medicine?” by Dr. Thomas A. LaSaine. The article itself, designed as the first in a series “on a vitally important question the practitioner of tomorrow must understand,” is a thoughtful introduction aimed at the medical student audience. The author criticizes the biased and dramatic nature of the available literature on the subject, characterizing it as “highly colored pro or con harangues,” and saying, “the student who would arrive at a reasoned point of view is bewildered as he reads so much material obviously intended to touch off emotional responses to what are presented as real issues,” a criticism that could stand on the subject today. From this first article, The Meharry News postures itself as a level-headed source from which students will receive even-handed discussion of current professional concerns.
The Meharry Medical College newspapers remind us of the various roles publications can play in student life. There is a need for serious subject-based journalism geared toward those about to enter professional life. Sometimes, though, you just need a break from your studies and a bad joke or two. Long before the days of the internet, school newspapers could provide both.
Images from Amistad’s website, newsletters, and blogs cannot be reproduced without permission.
#AfricanAmericanCollegesandUniversities #Education #Newspapers #MeharryMedicalCollege #SchoolNewspaperCollection
Explore More Articles
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books:
Kathe Hambrick is the Founder and former Executive Director of the River Road African American Museum (RRAAM), established in 1994 as Louisiana’s first African American Museum. She is a past President of the national Association of African American Museums (AAAM). She served as the Chief Curator and Director of Interpretation for the West Baton Rouge Museum for four years. Hambrick was born in New Orleans and spent half her life in California where she received an undergraduate degree in English and a minor in African American Studies from California State University Long Beach.
Hambrick is a Public Historian with a passion for collecting, preserving and interpreting history for diverse audiences. Her thirty-one-year career as a museum professional includes expertise in program development, interpretative planning, curation, grant writing, fundraising, and board governance. She led the effort to preserve three slave cemeteries and six historic buildings in Ascension Parish.
She is considered an expert on the history and culture of African Americans in communities along the Mississippi River. Kathe Hambrick’s interviews include local, national, and international media, the BBC Learning Channel, CBS Morning News, National Public Radio, and the New York Times. The consulting firm, 2PRESERVE was established by Hambrick in 2021 to provide cultural resources and guidance to corporations, museums, cultural centers, government agencies, and faith-based organizations.
Throughout her 31-year career, Kathe has curated over one hundred exhibits, including The Rural Roots of Jazz, African Influences on Louisiana Cuisine, Creole Du Monde, and The Square Collection which featured original art by Elizabeth Catlett, Jacob Lawrence, Richmond Barthé, and Tina Allen. Her most recent exhibit is the GU272 of Ascension: The Jesuit and Episcopal Connection to Slavery.
Kathe is the author and co-author of several books: