1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:07,040 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. After our Friday behind the scenes discussion of 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:11,080 Speaker 1: William Montague Cobb, we are rerunning our episode on him 3 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: just for the sake of clarity. There is a reference 4 00:00:15,000 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: in this episode to an upcoming Saturday Classic about the 5 00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:22,200 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty six Olympic Games. That Saturday Classic already ran 6 00:00:22,320 --> 00:00:25,360 Speaker 1: back in twenty one when the original episode came out. 7 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,800 Speaker 1: We were not rerunning that Saturday Classic a second time 8 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:34,480 Speaker 1: on a subsequent Saturday after this one. This episode originally 9 00:00:34,479 --> 00:00:41,440 Speaker 1: came out on February seventeenth, twenty twenty one. Enjoy Welcome 10 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartRadio. Hello, 11 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson and 12 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,600 Speaker 1: I'm Holly Frye. I have a weekly virtual lunch with 13 00:00:58,600 --> 00:01:01,800 Speaker 1: a friend of mine and sometimes one of us basically 14 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,919 Speaker 1: briefs the other one on whatever project we are working 15 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:08,400 Speaker 1: on right now, And when we were talking about this 16 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,480 Speaker 1: week's episode, I started out saying something like he was 17 00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:14,000 Speaker 1: a physical anthropologist who did a lot of work to 18 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:18,480 Speaker 1: debunk the racist theories of other anthropologists, And then later 19 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: on in this conversation, I said something like, on top 20 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:23,200 Speaker 1: of being an anthropologist, he was an activist and did 21 00:01:23,240 --> 00:01:26,720 Speaker 1: all kinds of work to desegregate hospitals and advocate for 22 00:01:26,760 --> 00:01:29,640 Speaker 1: the passage of the Medicare bill. And then later on 23 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:31,360 Speaker 1: it was like, oh, and he was also an anatomy 24 00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:34,800 Speaker 1: professor at Howard, so he was teaching anatomy to a 25 00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,720 Speaker 1: whole generation of black doctors and dentists. And at that point, 26 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:41,520 Speaker 1: my friend said, wait, how can one person do that much? 27 00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:44,760 Speaker 1: And that's correct, that is a lot. And then on 28 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:50,840 Speaker 1: top of that three completely different things. A. W. Montague 29 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,240 Speaker 1: Cobb put out a sheerly enormous volume of work. He 30 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: was also the first black person in the United States 31 00:01:57,080 --> 00:01:59,800 Speaker 1: to earn a PhD in anthropology. He was the only 32 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: Black American working at that level in the field for decades. 33 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: And he wrote prolifically about anthropology and racial equity and 34 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: medical history and on and on. So he's who we're 35 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:16,160 Speaker 1: talking about today. And William Montague Cobb was born in Washington, 36 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,360 Speaker 1: D C. On October twelfth, nineteen oh four. He was 37 00:02:19,440 --> 00:02:22,760 Speaker 1: known to his friends and family as Monty. His mother 38 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:26,280 Speaker 1: was Alexine Montague Cobb, and she was born in Washington, 39 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:30,160 Speaker 1: d c. But her parents were from Massachusetts. Several sources 40 00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,920 Speaker 1: note that she had indigenous ancestry. In our episode on 41 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: Paul Cuffey, we talked about how marriages between African and 42 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:40,880 Speaker 1: indigenous people were common in Massachusetts in the eighteenth century, 43 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:45,680 Speaker 1: but beyond that, there really wasn't clear detail that Tracy 44 00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: was able to dig up on Alexine's family history and 45 00:02:49,400 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: her providence in that regard. So Monty's father, William Elmer Cobb, 46 00:02:55,560 --> 00:02:58,680 Speaker 1: was originally from Selma, Alabama, and he had moved to 47 00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:01,440 Speaker 1: the Washington, DC area at the end of the nineteenth 48 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:05,480 Speaker 1: century to work at the government printing office. Eventually he 49 00:03:05,520 --> 00:03:08,760 Speaker 1: started his own business as a printer. Before the young 50 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:12,520 Speaker 1: Monty started school, his mother, who had been a school teacher, 51 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:16,000 Speaker 1: taught him the basics of reading, writing, and math, and 52 00:03:16,040 --> 00:03:20,320 Speaker 1: the family also attended Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church. One of 53 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:24,720 Speaker 1: Monty's childhood fascinations was a book that belonged to his grandfather. 54 00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: This book included illustrations of people of different races and ethnicities, 55 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:33,280 Speaker 1: and they were shown in traditional forms of dress, and 56 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,080 Speaker 1: he was really struck by how all these different people 57 00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: from all around the world were drawn, as he described 58 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:44,760 Speaker 1: them quote with equal dignity. Cobb attended segregated public schools 59 00:03:44,800 --> 00:03:47,960 Speaker 1: in Washington, d c. And for high school, he attended 60 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:52,760 Speaker 1: Paul Lawrence Dunbar High. When we've talked about school segregation before, 61 00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 1: we have often talked about huge disparities in funding, resources, 62 00:03:57,560 --> 00:04:01,920 Speaker 1: and instructional quality, with schools for white children typically having 63 00:04:02,160 --> 00:04:05,840 Speaker 1: more of everything, more money, better facilities, and white teachers 64 00:04:05,840 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 1: who were also vastly better paid than their black counterparts. 65 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:16,280 Speaker 1: And while segregation was still fundamentally discriminatory, Dunbar was something 66 00:04:16,360 --> 00:04:19,680 Speaker 1: of an exception to this pattern. Yeah, Dunbar had been 67 00:04:19,800 --> 00:04:23,000 Speaker 1: established in eighteen seventy. It was the first public high 68 00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:26,040 Speaker 1: school for black students in the United States, and by 69 00:04:26,080 --> 00:04:29,600 Speaker 1: the time Cobb attended it had a reputation as a 70 00:04:29,640 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: truly elite school. It was the best high school for 71 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,719 Speaker 1: black students in the US. It was one of the 72 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:39,479 Speaker 1: best public high schools in the country overall. Many of 73 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:42,880 Speaker 1: the faculty had advanced degrees, although this was often because 74 00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,080 Speaker 1: they were kept out of university positions because of their race. 75 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,400 Speaker 1: Some of the faculty at Dunbar were actually alumni who 76 00:04:49,480 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: had gone on to graduate school and then had come 77 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,760 Speaker 1: back to Dunbar to teach. The teacher's pay was also 78 00:04:54,920 --> 00:04:58,400 Speaker 1: equivalent to that of white teachers in Washington, DC public schools, 79 00:04:58,440 --> 00:05:02,160 Speaker 1: but not necessarily that of people with the same degree 80 00:05:02,200 --> 00:05:05,320 Speaker 1: who were working in another area besides being school teachers. 81 00:05:05,960 --> 00:05:09,120 Speaker 1: As an academic high school, Dunbar tried to prepare its 82 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:13,080 Speaker 1: students to attend college, and recent graduates were often invited 83 00:05:13,120 --> 00:05:16,040 Speaker 1: back to the school to talk to current students about 84 00:05:16,040 --> 00:05:20,080 Speaker 1: their colleges and universities. Some of the students who came 85 00:05:20,160 --> 00:05:22,400 Speaker 1: back to Dunbar while Cobb was there had gone on 86 00:05:22,440 --> 00:05:26,760 Speaker 1: to Amherst College in Massachusetts. After Cobb graduated from Dunbar 87 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:28,840 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty one, he went on to get a 88 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: bachelor's degree at Amherst. He was one of four black 89 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,479 Speaker 1: students in his class there. Cobb had done really well 90 00:05:35,520 --> 00:05:38,880 Speaker 1: at Dunbar and that continued at Amherst. In addition to 91 00:05:38,960 --> 00:05:42,880 Speaker 1: excelling at his academic work, he was also a gifted athlete. 92 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:45,680 Speaker 1: He ran cross country and he boxed. That was actually 93 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,280 Speaker 1: something he had taught himself out of a book as 94 00:05:48,320 --> 00:05:51,800 Speaker 1: a teenager for the sake of self defense. He won 95 00:05:51,880 --> 00:05:56,280 Speaker 1: intramural championships in both cross country and boxing before graduating 96 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:59,920 Speaker 1: from Amherston nineteen twenty five. Thanks to his strong ACA 97 00:06:00,000 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 1: academic performance in biology, Cobb earned Amherst's Harvey Blodgett Scholarship, 98 00:06:05,240 --> 00:06:08,000 Speaker 1: which allowed him to continue his studies at Woods Whole 99 00:06:08,120 --> 00:06:12,800 Speaker 1: Marine Biology Laboratory on Cape Cod. At Woods Hole, Cob 100 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:17,240 Speaker 1: worked under doctor Ernest Everett just Just, was an experimental 101 00:06:17,279 --> 00:06:20,840 Speaker 1: embryologist who was also on the faculty at Howard University. 102 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:25,320 Speaker 1: Cobb's research work at Woods Hull included observing fertilization and 103 00:06:25,360 --> 00:06:29,719 Speaker 1: embryonic development of marine animals under a microscope and taking 104 00:06:29,839 --> 00:06:33,680 Speaker 1: detailed notes and sketching what he had observed. From there, 105 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,880 Speaker 1: Cobb decided to pursue a degree in medicine at Howard University, 106 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:41,640 Speaker 1: and his motivation for this was, in his words, quote, 107 00:06:41,720 --> 00:06:45,000 Speaker 1: I just felt a doctor was respected and made sick 108 00:06:45,040 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: people well. To earn money for his tuition, he spent 109 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:51,200 Speaker 1: his summers working as a waiter on a Great Lakes 110 00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:55,600 Speaker 1: steamship as well as harvesting grain in Saskatchewan. At Howard, 111 00:06:55,640 --> 00:06:58,560 Speaker 1: he joined the Omega psci Fi fraternity, and in nineteen 112 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:02,440 Speaker 1: twenty six he helped establish fraternity's Kappa Psi chapter for 113 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:06,600 Speaker 1: students at the university's professional schools, including its medical school. 114 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: He continued to excel academically, and in his last year 115 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:12,720 Speaker 1: of medical school, he was invited to teach a course 116 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,960 Speaker 1: in embryology. Based on his academic performance and his earlier 117 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,040 Speaker 1: work at Woods Hole, Cobb earned his MD from Howard 118 00:07:21,120 --> 00:07:25,040 Speaker 1: in nineteen twenty nine. That same year, he married Hilda B. Smith. 119 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:27,880 Speaker 1: They would go on to have two daughters, Carolyn and 120 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:32,120 Speaker 1: Hilda Emilia, who would be known as Amelia. Cobb completed 121 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:35,560 Speaker 1: his internship at Howard University Hospital, which at the time 122 00:07:35,680 --> 00:07:38,840 Speaker 1: was known as the Freedman's Hospital. He passed his board 123 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:41,360 Speaker 1: exams and he got a license to practice medicine and 124 00:07:41,400 --> 00:07:46,040 Speaker 1: surgery in nineteen thirty. But Cobb's experience teaching that embryology 125 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,880 Speaker 1: course had also shifted his focus for his career. He 126 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:53,200 Speaker 1: decided that instead of becoming a practicing doctor, he would 127 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,680 Speaker 1: become a teacher, teaching other people to become doctors, dentists, 128 00:07:57,760 --> 00:08:03,160 Speaker 1: and surgeons. This goal aligned very well with Howard's goals 129 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:06,280 Speaker 1: as a black university. Although most of the medical students 130 00:08:06,280 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: at Howard were black, most of the faculty were white, 131 00:08:08,800 --> 00:08:12,360 Speaker 1: and they were working part time. Mordecai Johnson, who was 132 00:08:12,400 --> 00:08:16,040 Speaker 1: Howard University's first black president, thought that its student body 133 00:08:16,080 --> 00:08:18,760 Speaker 1: would be better served if there were more full time 134 00:08:18,880 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 1: black professors, but this really presented a challenge. The university 135 00:08:23,640 --> 00:08:26,320 Speaker 1: was training black doctors, but there really were not many 136 00:08:26,360 --> 00:08:29,520 Speaker 1: black people who were qualified to fill these teaching roles. 137 00:08:30,160 --> 00:08:33,439 Speaker 1: So the university decided to invest in its own graduates 138 00:08:33,480 --> 00:08:36,480 Speaker 1: and to prepare them to teach at the medical school. 139 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:40,480 Speaker 1: Numa PG. Adams was dean at the medical School at Howard. 140 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:44,000 Speaker 1: Like Mordecai Johnson, he was the first black person to 141 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:47,199 Speaker 1: fill that role. Cobb was one of the medical school 142 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:51,400 Speaker 1: alumni Adams selected for this effort. Cobb chose anatomy as 143 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:54,760 Speaker 1: his focus for further study because, in his words, quote, 144 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:58,640 Speaker 1: anatomy is the kindergarten of medicine. He didn't mean that 145 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:01,679 Speaker 1: anatomy was an easy place time, but instead that it 146 00:09:01,720 --> 00:09:04,640 Speaker 1: was the foundation on which the study of medicine rested. 147 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:08,079 Speaker 1: He went on to Western Reserve University that is now 148 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:12,360 Speaker 1: case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio to study both 149 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:16,559 Speaker 1: anatomy and physical anthropology. We will talk about that after 150 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:29,800 Speaker 1: a sponsor break. Anthropology is the study of humanity, and 151 00:09:29,840 --> 00:09:33,880 Speaker 1: today the field of physical anthropology is largely focused on 152 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:38,960 Speaker 1: human evolution, including genetic research into humans and our homined ancestors. 153 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:42,200 Speaker 1: But in the early years of the field, when it 154 00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:46,040 Speaker 1: was very first branching off from the related field of anatomy, 155 00:09:46,480 --> 00:09:51,200 Speaker 1: physical anthropology was largely focused on researching human development and 156 00:09:51,320 --> 00:09:54,720 Speaker 1: human diversity through the study of the human body, and 157 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:58,559 Speaker 1: a lot of that research tried to categorize humanity into 158 00:09:58,640 --> 00:10:02,319 Speaker 1: different races. One of the earliest figures in this research 159 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:06,720 Speaker 1: was German anthropologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, who is sometimes called 160 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,960 Speaker 1: the father of physical anthropology. His study of human anatomy, 161 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,560 Speaker 1: particularly the cranium, led him to propose that all of 162 00:10:14,640 --> 00:10:18,400 Speaker 1: humanity could be divided into five races, and he defined 163 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:25,680 Speaker 1: those races as Caucasian, Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American. In 164 00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:30,320 Speaker 1: the US, physician and anthropologist Samuel Morton started collecting skulls 165 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: meant to represent each of those races, and he started 166 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,160 Speaker 1: doing that in eighteen thirty. This work led him to 167 00:10:37,200 --> 00:10:40,880 Speaker 1: build a huge collection of skulls, measuring them and drawing 168 00:10:40,920 --> 00:10:44,840 Speaker 1: conclusions based on those measurements. A lot of this work 169 00:10:44,920 --> 00:10:49,320 Speaker 1: was explicitly racist. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, 170 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:54,400 Speaker 1: many but certainly not all physical anthropologists used measurements of 171 00:10:54,440 --> 00:10:57,160 Speaker 1: the human body not just to try to sort people 172 00:10:57,200 --> 00:11:02,079 Speaker 1: into categories by race, but also to rank those categories 173 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:06,840 Speaker 1: according to their superiority or their worth. Morton, for example, 174 00:11:06,920 --> 00:11:09,840 Speaker 1: used his cranial measurements to try to prove that white 175 00:11:09,840 --> 00:11:15,760 Speaker 1: people were superior to all other races. Czech anthropologist Alesh Hrdlichkea, 176 00:11:15,880 --> 00:11:19,280 Speaker 1: who worked primarily in the United States, is regarded as 177 00:11:19,320 --> 00:11:22,240 Speaker 1: one of the founders of the field of physical anthropology 178 00:11:22,400 --> 00:11:25,920 Speaker 1: in the US, and he also supported the idea that 179 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:30,280 Speaker 1: white people, specifically white men, were superior and that physical 180 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: anthropology as a field could prove that superiority. An outlier 181 00:11:35,559 --> 00:11:38,720 Speaker 1: in all of this was Thomas Wingate Todd, professor of 182 00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:43,600 Speaker 1: anatomy at Western Reserve University Medical School. Todd's own work 183 00:11:43,640 --> 00:11:47,000 Speaker 1: in anatomy and physical anthropology led him to conclude that 184 00:11:47,120 --> 00:11:50,360 Speaker 1: race did not influence brain development and that the racist 185 00:11:50,440 --> 00:11:53,640 Speaker 1: conclusions his colleagues had drawn from things like skull measurements 186 00:11:54,160 --> 00:11:58,839 Speaker 1: were baseless. His research suggested that physiological differences that fell 187 00:11:58,880 --> 00:12:03,600 Speaker 1: along demographically were due to social and environmental conditions, not 188 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:08,240 Speaker 1: to innate race related traits that conferred some kind of superiority. 189 00:12:09,080 --> 00:12:13,040 Speaker 1: He was deeply critical of Hrdlichke's conclusions about the supremacy 190 00:12:13,080 --> 00:12:17,400 Speaker 1: of white men. Thomas Wingate Todd was also William Montague 191 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:21,120 Speaker 1: Cobb's mentor at Western Reserve University and his pH d 192 00:12:21,320 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: thesis advisor. While at Western Reserve, Cobb worked at the 193 00:12:25,520 --> 00:12:30,559 Speaker 1: Hammon Museum of Comparative Anatomy and Anthropology, and he embarked 194 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:34,040 Speaker 1: on a massive survey of the skeletal collections that were 195 00:12:34,080 --> 00:12:38,319 Speaker 1: available for anthropological research. This included the ham and Todd 196 00:12:38,360 --> 00:12:41,960 Speaker 1: collection at Western Reserve and collections that were held at 197 00:12:41,960 --> 00:12:46,120 Speaker 1: the US National Museum, which is now the Smithsonian. The 198 00:12:46,320 --> 00:12:50,559 Speaker 1: curator of the collection at the National Museum was A. 199 00:12:50,679 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: Lesh Hrlichke. As a side note, in his later years, 200 00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,120 Speaker 1: Cobb speculated on why Todd, who as we said was 201 00:12:58,120 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: his thesis advisor, had sent him to work under herd 202 00:13:01,640 --> 00:13:05,080 Speaker 1: Lychka on this project in spite of knowing about that 203 00:13:05,200 --> 00:13:09,920 Speaker 1: man's racist views. One reason was just physical proximity, since 204 00:13:09,960 --> 00:13:12,960 Speaker 1: the National Museum's collection was in Washington, d c. Where 205 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,920 Speaker 1: Cobb lived and had lived for almost all of his life. 206 00:13:16,920 --> 00:13:20,240 Speaker 1: But Cob also concluded that another reason was that Todd 207 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:23,240 Speaker 1: just wanted to see how herd Lychka would square Cobb's 208 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:27,120 Speaker 1: intelligence and academic excellence with his views of people with 209 00:13:27,240 --> 00:13:32,439 Speaker 1: African ancestry as inferior. Although Cobb describes herd Lychka as 210 00:13:32,520 --> 00:13:36,640 Speaker 1: generally treating him with outward respect, he also describes him 211 00:13:36,720 --> 00:13:40,439 Speaker 1: as quote inventing a reason why he was different from 212 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:44,640 Speaker 1: other black people that, in herd Lychke's word, Cobb's quote 213 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:49,400 Speaker 1: vigor stemmed from his multi racial ancestry. Cobb finished his 214 00:13:49,559 --> 00:13:53,640 Speaker 1: PhD in anatomy in physical anthropology in nineteen thirty two. 215 00:13:54,040 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: That made him the first black man in the United 216 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:59,599 Speaker 1: States to earn a PhD in the field of anthropology. 217 00:14:00,360 --> 00:14:03,840 Speaker 1: His dissertation was published the following year under the title 218 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,840 Speaker 1: Human Archives, and in addition to it detailing the research 219 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:12,440 Speaker 1: collections in Cleveland and in Washington, DC, this dissertation also 220 00:14:12,559 --> 00:14:17,840 Speaker 1: surveyed methods for documenting, processing, and preserving these types of collections. 221 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:22,000 Speaker 1: So Cobb's goal with this dissertation was not just to 222 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:25,480 Speaker 1: meet the requirements for his PhD. It was also to 223 00:14:25,520 --> 00:14:27,960 Speaker 1: give him the foundational knowledge that he would need to 224 00:14:28,280 --> 00:14:33,000 Speaker 1: establish such a research collection at Howard. As we said earlier, 225 00:14:33,160 --> 00:14:36,720 Speaker 1: the field of physical anthropology was brand new. At this point. 226 00:14:37,280 --> 00:14:39,400 Speaker 1: It was so new that the first meeting of the 227 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:43,920 Speaker 1: American Association of Physical Anthropologists that Cobb attended was only 228 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:47,200 Speaker 1: the second one ever to have been held, and Cobb 229 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:50,400 Speaker 1: was really the only black voice in the field until 230 00:14:50,400 --> 00:14:55,360 Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. After completing his PhD, Cobb returned to 231 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: Howard as planned. Although he often spent summers working with 232 00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,960 Speaker 1: the collections at Case Western and at the Smithsonian, he 233 00:15:03,120 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: also did extensive research into the human cranium and connections 234 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:09,720 Speaker 1: between the bones of the cranium and the bones of 235 00:15:09,720 --> 00:15:13,520 Speaker 1: the face. He drew conclusions about how these bones grew 236 00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:16,760 Speaker 1: and develop over the course of a person's life. One 237 00:15:16,760 --> 00:15:20,239 Speaker 1: of his discoveries in this research related to the closure 238 00:15:20,480 --> 00:15:25,000 Speaker 1: of the craniofacial sutures. At the time, one method that 239 00:15:25,080 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 1: researchers used to determine age when they were analyzing a 240 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:33,800 Speaker 1: person's remains was to analyze the closure of the sutures 241 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:36,960 Speaker 1: of the cranium, and Cobb concluded that this just wasn't 242 00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:40,560 Speaker 1: a reliable method because a range of biological factors could 243 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:44,720 Speaker 1: affect the way a person's sutures closed. At Howard, Cobb 244 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:48,240 Speaker 1: spent the next few years both teaching anatomy and establishing 245 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,880 Speaker 1: the university's Laboratory of Anatomy and Physical Anthropology. His work 246 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 1: involved preserving the skeletons that had been part of anatomy 247 00:15:56,240 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: student's cadaver labs, as well as keeping meticulous records involving 248 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:05,720 Speaker 1: their medical history and demographic data. Cobb continued preserving skeletons 249 00:16:05,720 --> 00:16:09,200 Speaker 1: for this collection until nineteen sixty five, for a total 250 00:16:09,240 --> 00:16:13,280 Speaker 1: of nine hundred eighty seven sets of skeletal remains. He 251 00:16:13,400 --> 00:16:17,160 Speaker 1: also took X rays, medical records, and demographic data from 252 00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,120 Speaker 1: more than nine hundred living persons to add to the collection. 253 00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:25,920 Speaker 1: The W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory still exists at Howard today, 254 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:30,120 Speaker 1: as does this collection, and in terms of skeletal collections, 255 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:33,640 Speaker 1: it's unique. Along with remains from the New York African 256 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:37,080 Speaker 1: Burial Ground that are also at Howard, the Cobb collection 257 00:16:37,400 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: is the only such collection of skeletal remains housed at 258 00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,760 Speaker 1: a historically black university, and it's also unique in terms 259 00:16:44,800 --> 00:16:48,760 Speaker 1: of the skeletons themselves. They represent the skeletal remains of 260 00:16:48,760 --> 00:16:52,280 Speaker 1: people who donated their bodies to the university or that 261 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:57,440 Speaker 1: the university purchased so overwhelmingly they represent black residents of Washington, 262 00:16:57,520 --> 00:17:00,520 Speaker 1: d C. Who died between nineteen thirty one in nineteen 263 00:17:00,560 --> 00:17:03,480 Speaker 1: sixty five. So, in addition to what they represent in 264 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,000 Speaker 1: terms of the study of human anatomy, physiology, and anthropology, 265 00:17:08,160 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 1: they also represent a source of information specifically about the 266 00:17:12,119 --> 00:17:15,480 Speaker 1: black population of Washington, d C. Over more than three decades. 267 00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:19,680 Speaker 1: In nineteen forty two, Cobb became a full professor at Howard, 268 00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:22,439 Speaker 1: and in nineteen forty nine he was named chair of 269 00:17:22,480 --> 00:17:25,600 Speaker 1: the Anatomy department, as a role that he held until 270 00:17:25,680 --> 00:17:29,480 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine. As a professor, he became known for 271 00:17:29,560 --> 00:17:34,399 Speaker 1: taking an interdisciplinary approach to the subject. He recited poetry 272 00:17:34,440 --> 00:17:38,280 Speaker 1: to illustrate concepts, and he played the violin while students 273 00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:42,040 Speaker 1: worked on their dissections. He also thought basic skills in 274 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:46,480 Speaker 1: drawing were critical to studying anatomy, that understanding proportions and 275 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:50,840 Speaker 1: representations would give students a fuller understanding of the human body. 276 00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,920 Speaker 1: Students would draw a human figure and its skeletal structure, 277 00:17:55,359 --> 00:17:58,879 Speaker 1: then fill in the remaining anatomical features layer by layer. 278 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:04,360 Speaker 1: Method of anatomical study through drawing was popular in anatomy 279 00:18:04,359 --> 00:18:07,679 Speaker 1: classrooms at the start of Cobb's career. But by the 280 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:10,520 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties it had really fallen out of favor, and 281 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:14,240 Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty nine, first year medical students at Howard 282 00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:18,600 Speaker 1: launched a protest against Cobb, both as an anatomy professor 283 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,160 Speaker 1: and as the chair of the Department of Anatomy. Students 284 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:25,280 Speaker 1: felt that his anatomy classes were too theatrical and too 285 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:28,520 Speaker 1: free form, and they were not focused on preparing them 286 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,320 Speaker 1: to pass their board exams, whereas to me, I'm like, 287 00:18:32,440 --> 00:18:35,119 Speaker 1: you get to learn art with your science. That's amazing. 288 00:18:36,440 --> 00:18:40,920 Speaker 1: Clearly different priorities. Although Cobb was removed from his position 289 00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:44,119 Speaker 1: as department chair after this, fifty eight members of the 290 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: faculty signed a petition protesting this removal. In the end, 291 00:18:49,040 --> 00:18:52,680 Speaker 1: Cobb was named Howard's first distinguished Professor. That's a role 292 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:55,600 Speaker 1: he held until nineteen seventy three, when he reached the 293 00:18:55,640 --> 00:19:00,320 Speaker 1: school's mandatory retirement age of seventy A dinner held in 294 00:19:00,359 --> 00:19:03,439 Speaker 1: his honor that year was attended by many of the 295 00:19:03,440 --> 00:19:06,920 Speaker 1: same people who had protested against him in nineteen sixty nine, 296 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,560 Speaker 1: students who were now in their last year of medical school. 297 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:14,480 Speaker 1: According to Cobb's colleague Charles H. Epps, who would later 298 00:19:14,520 --> 00:19:17,440 Speaker 1: be named dean of the medical school. By this point, 299 00:19:17,480 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 1: many of the students felt that they hadn't been entirely 300 00:19:20,359 --> 00:19:23,920 Speaker 1: fair to Cobb in their earlier protest. Yeah, there was 301 00:19:23,920 --> 00:19:25,840 Speaker 1: also some discussion that he was sort of the most 302 00:19:26,920 --> 00:19:31,400 Speaker 1: high profile person in the medical school, and so it 303 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,199 Speaker 1: made him an easy target for students who sort of 304 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:38,240 Speaker 1: felt the whole medical school system was too paternalistic and 305 00:19:38,720 --> 00:19:43,040 Speaker 1: became like an emblem of all of the frustrations of 306 00:19:43,359 --> 00:19:47,320 Speaker 1: the students at the time. After his retirement, though, Cobb 307 00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:50,680 Speaker 1: held the title of Distinguished Professor Emeritus, and he continued 308 00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:55,119 Speaker 1: working at twelve other colleges and universities by doing guest professorships. 309 00:19:55,920 --> 00:19:59,480 Speaker 1: By Cobb's own account, he taught anatomy to as many 310 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:03,080 Speaker 1: as six thousand medical and dental students, most of whom 311 00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:05,800 Speaker 1: were black, over the course of his career. And we're 312 00:20:05,840 --> 00:20:08,840 Speaker 1: going to talk about his work outside the anatomy classroom 313 00:20:09,040 --> 00:20:20,719 Speaker 1: after we first paused for a sponsor break. Before the break, 314 00:20:21,080 --> 00:20:25,080 Speaker 1: we talked about how when W. Montague Cobb first entered 315 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:28,560 Speaker 1: the field of physical anthropology, a lot of people in 316 00:20:28,560 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: that field were promoting racist views and drawing racist conclusions 317 00:20:33,119 --> 00:20:37,440 Speaker 1: in their work. Thomas Wingate Todd, who was Cobb's doctoral advisor, 318 00:20:37,520 --> 00:20:41,400 Speaker 1: was one of the people pushing back against this scientific racism. 319 00:20:41,800 --> 00:20:46,000 Speaker 1: Another was Julian Herman Lewis. Lewis pointed out that a 320 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,800 Speaker 1: lot of anatomical research that existed at the time focused 321 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,919 Speaker 1: only on white subjects but did not actually say so. 322 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:57,320 Speaker 1: So the subjects of a particular piece of research would 323 00:20:57,359 --> 00:21:01,439 Speaker 1: be described with something like quote normal, healthy, mails, but 324 00:21:01,520 --> 00:21:05,440 Speaker 1: they were really only white people. Lewis's nineteen forty two 325 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: book The Biology of the Negro picked apart the idea 326 00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:12,640 Speaker 1: that Black Americans were somehow biologically inferior, but that book 327 00:21:12,680 --> 00:21:17,520 Speaker 1: didn't really get widespread recognition. There was also Franz Boas, 328 00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:21,560 Speaker 1: who is sometimes called the father of American anthropology, and 329 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:24,520 Speaker 1: to be clear, his work was not without fault. He 330 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,480 Speaker 1: robbed indigenous people's burial sites in order to collect remains 331 00:21:28,520 --> 00:21:32,480 Speaker 1: to study and also sell. But he also really stressed 332 00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:38,040 Speaker 1: that human beings were fundamentally biologically equal, with the differences 333 00:21:38,080 --> 00:21:42,439 Speaker 1: among them being due to historical, environmental, and developmental factors. 334 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:47,119 Speaker 1: And of course there was also w. Montague kob himself. 335 00:21:47,960 --> 00:21:50,919 Speaker 1: Throughout his career, in every area he worked in, he 336 00:21:51,040 --> 00:21:54,879 Speaker 1: was deeply focused on dispelling racist ideas and trying to 337 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:59,720 Speaker 1: ensure racial equality, especially for Black Americans. He didn't try 338 00:21:59,760 --> 00:22:02,280 Speaker 1: to spell the idea of race in general, but he 339 00:22:02,359 --> 00:22:07,000 Speaker 1: did emphasize humanity's diversity in the social and historical factors 340 00:22:07,040 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: that contributed to that diversity, rather than framing race as 341 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:16,480 Speaker 1: biologically determined, with some races inherently superior to others. Cobb's 342 00:22:16,520 --> 00:22:21,080 Speaker 1: most high profile work to debunk racism through anthropology followed 343 00:22:21,080 --> 00:22:24,560 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirty six Olympic Games held in Berlin, Germany. 344 00:22:25,200 --> 00:22:28,480 Speaker 1: That's the Olympic Games at which Jesse Owens earned four 345 00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:32,240 Speaker 1: gold medals. We actually are going to replay that episode 346 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:36,280 Speaker 1: as a Saturday Classic coming up soon. Sometimes people interpret 347 00:22:36,320 --> 00:22:41,840 Speaker 1: Owen's exceptional performance as undermining Adolf Hitler's vision of Aryan supremacy, 348 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:45,800 Speaker 1: but really there was a lot of discussion about Owen's 349 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,320 Speaker 1: wins at the Olympic Games that was used to back 350 00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:52,640 Speaker 1: up the racist assertion that his athletic performance was due 351 00:22:52,760 --> 00:22:58,040 Speaker 1: to his race and that black people's purportedly innate athletic 352 00:22:58,119 --> 00:23:02,719 Speaker 1: abilities came at the expense of their intellectual abilities. And 353 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: this was not just a belief that was circulating within 354 00:23:05,680 --> 00:23:09,440 Speaker 1: the world of physical anthropology. It quickly made its way 355 00:23:09,560 --> 00:23:14,679 Speaker 1: into mainstream writing about athletics and race. Cobb worked to 356 00:23:14,760 --> 00:23:18,560 Speaker 1: debunk this assertion, examining and taking X rays of runners, 357 00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:23,160 Speaker 1: including Owens himself. In nineteen thirty six, he published Race 358 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:26,639 Speaker 1: and Runners, which began with an overview of recent performance 359 00:23:26,720 --> 00:23:30,760 Speaker 1: by black runners, before detailing other shifting demographic trends that 360 00:23:30,800 --> 00:23:33,959 Speaker 1: had played out over the history of the sport. He 361 00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:38,679 Speaker 1: analyzed runner's physical characteristics and their performance. He noted that 362 00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:42,240 Speaker 1: Owens had several physical traits that were purportedly more common 363 00:23:42,320 --> 00:23:46,080 Speaker 1: in white runners, not the traits supposedly unique to black 364 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:50,320 Speaker 1: runners that would have, according to that widely circulated theory, 365 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:55,359 Speaker 1: given him an advantage. He concluded, quote, no particular racial 366 00:23:55,520 --> 00:23:59,719 Speaker 1: or national group has ever exercised a monopoly or supremacy 367 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:03,639 Speaker 1: in a particular kind of event. The popularity of different 368 00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:07,040 Speaker 1: events with different groups of people has and probably will 369 00:24:07,080 --> 00:24:11,960 Speaker 1: always vary, though not necessarily in the same direction. He 370 00:24:12,040 --> 00:24:15,040 Speaker 1: went on to say, quote the physiques of champion negro 371 00:24:15,200 --> 00:24:19,159 Speaker 1: and white sprinters in general, and of Jesse Owen's in particular, 372 00:24:19,600 --> 00:24:24,879 Speaker 1: revealed nothing to indicate that Negroid physical characters are anatomically 373 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:29,760 Speaker 1: concerned with the present dominance of Negro athletes in national 374 00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:33,200 Speaker 1: competition in the short dashes and the broad jump. There 375 00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:36,919 Speaker 1: is not a single physical characteristic which all the Negro 376 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,880 Speaker 1: stars in question have in common which would definitely identify 377 00:24:40,920 --> 00:24:45,600 Speaker 1: them as Negroes. Cobb wrote other articles on this subject 378 00:24:45,600 --> 00:24:48,400 Speaker 1: over the course of the next decade and more, including 379 00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,800 Speaker 1: ones that were published in popular magazines. For example, in 380 00:24:51,880 --> 00:24:55,320 Speaker 1: Negro Digest in nineteen forty seven, he wrote, quote, science 381 00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: has not revealed a single trait particular to the Negro 382 00:24:59,119 --> 00:25:03,720 Speaker 1: alone to which his athletic achievements could be attributed. In 383 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:07,640 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, Cobb published the Negro as a biological 384 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:10,840 Speaker 1: element in the American population that was published in the 385 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,160 Speaker 1: Journal of Negro Education, and this was a broad look 386 00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:18,600 Speaker 1: at black Americans from an anthropological perspective. He wrote, quote, 387 00:25:18,880 --> 00:25:22,439 Speaker 1: in the United States today, law and custom decree that 388 00:25:22,560 --> 00:25:26,560 Speaker 1: any citizen who is known to have African blood, however diluted, 389 00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:31,320 Speaker 1: is a Negro. Consequently, from American negroes, individuals may be 390 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:35,360 Speaker 1: selected who might serve as examples of nearly every physical 391 00:25:35,400 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 1: type in the world, from West African to Nordic. He 392 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,080 Speaker 1: also concluded that this diversity was temporary because in most 393 00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,439 Speaker 1: of the US, intermarriages between black and white people were 394 00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:50,840 Speaker 1: either socially taboo or legally banned. He thought over time, 395 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:55,320 Speaker 1: the country's black population would become more homogeneous. Of course, 396 00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,280 Speaker 1: those laws and social norms have certainly shifted in the 397 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:00,800 Speaker 1: decades since he wrote that paper. Yeah, we have a 398 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:04,040 Speaker 1: two part episode on Loving versus Virginia, which is the 399 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,399 Speaker 1: Supreme Court decision that struck down anti missigination laws for 400 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:12,920 Speaker 1: more on that. So so far, this might all sound 401 00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:17,679 Speaker 1: pretty academic, and there is value in debunking racist ideas, 402 00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,720 Speaker 1: especially considering that these ideas made their way into things 403 00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:26,639 Speaker 1: like mainstream magazines and high school anatomy and physiology textbooks. 404 00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,080 Speaker 1: I feel like we have read from such textbooks and 405 00:26:31,160 --> 00:26:34,640 Speaker 1: previous episodes of the show that repeat these same basic ideas. 406 00:26:35,359 --> 00:26:38,640 Speaker 1: But Cobb's work also focused on things that you might 407 00:26:38,680 --> 00:26:44,200 Speaker 1: describe as more immediately practical, like integrating the American medical system. 408 00:26:44,960 --> 00:26:48,280 Speaker 1: Cobb felt that the country segregated medical system was harming 409 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,600 Speaker 1: people of every race. In much of his work, Cobb 410 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,840 Speaker 1: noted that Indigenous, Asian, and Hispanic and Latino patients were 411 00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:59,800 Speaker 1: often treated similarly to black patients, but overall his work 412 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,000 Speaker 1: was more focused on the needs of black people than 413 00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:06,360 Speaker 1: on these other groups. In Cobb's view, discrimination with slowing 414 00:27:06,400 --> 00:27:10,040 Speaker 1: medical progress and lowering the quality of care for everyone, 415 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:15,240 Speaker 1: but especially for black patients. It was also restricting opportunities 416 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:19,640 Speaker 1: for black doctors. After the nineteen ten Flexner Report, Mahari 417 00:27:19,760 --> 00:27:22,480 Speaker 1: and Howard, which we've talked about before, were the only 418 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:26,240 Speaker 1: black medical schools, and up until the nineteen forties, black 419 00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,840 Speaker 1: doctors could only do their residencies at a handful of 420 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:33,680 Speaker 1: black hospitals. Afterward, they could only work in those same 421 00:27:33,760 --> 00:27:37,760 Speaker 1: hospitals or in private practice, and this was holding back 422 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:42,480 Speaker 1: the entire medical field. So Cobbs started this integration work 423 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,960 Speaker 1: in the nineteen forties by advocating for black doctors to 424 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:49,879 Speaker 1: be accepted on staff at white hospitals and to be 425 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,320 Speaker 1: allowed admission into white's only professional societies. This included the 426 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,919 Speaker 1: Medical Society of the District of Columbia and the American 427 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: Medical Association. There had been other organizations established for black 428 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:09,080 Speaker 1: doctors because of this exclusion. That included the Medicoturgical Society 429 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,920 Speaker 1: of the District of Columbia that had been established for 430 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:16,280 Speaker 1: black physicians in eighteen eighty four and the National Medical Association, 431 00:28:16,400 --> 00:28:19,600 Speaker 1: which was established in eighteen ninety five. He also wrote 432 00:28:19,640 --> 00:28:23,920 Speaker 1: specifically about workplace and social factors that affected black nurses, 433 00:28:24,440 --> 00:28:28,320 Speaker 1: noting that black people had historically performed critical and often 434 00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:33,520 Speaker 1: dangerous and unpleasant work during emergencies like wars and disease outbreaks, 435 00:28:34,119 --> 00:28:36,840 Speaker 1: but then were denied the dignity of the title nurse 436 00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:40,160 Speaker 1: because of their race. He traced that history through to 437 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:45,480 Speaker 1: nursing schools and professional associations excluding black people. In nineteen 438 00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:49,480 Speaker 1: fifty seven, Cobb helped organize the first m Hotep National 439 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:53,960 Speaker 1: Conference on Hospital Integration, which was focused on integration all 440 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:57,520 Speaker 1: through the hospital system, the patients, the staff, the administration, 441 00:28:57,680 --> 00:29:00,440 Speaker 1: the residents and interns at teaching hospitals, all all of it. 442 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:04,760 Speaker 1: This conference was named for m Hotep, who was advisor 443 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,000 Speaker 1: to the Third Dynasty pharaoh Josser, who we've talked about 444 00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: on the show before, and later was worshiped as an 445 00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:15,040 Speaker 1: Egyptian god of medicine. This conference was sponsored by the 446 00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:19,880 Speaker 1: National Medical Association's Council on Medical Education and Hospitals, by 447 00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,960 Speaker 1: the NAACP's National Health Committee, and by the Medicoturgical Society 448 00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,360 Speaker 1: of the District of Columbia. It was held annually until 449 00:29:28,440 --> 00:29:32,440 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty three. The conference became less necessary after the 450 00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:35,080 Speaker 1: passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four, 451 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,560 Speaker 1: which Cobb had aggressively supported. Title six of the Act 452 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:43,200 Speaker 1: reads quote, no person in the United States shall, on 453 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:47,040 Speaker 1: the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded 454 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:50,840 Speaker 1: from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be 455 00:29:50,960 --> 00:29:55,600 Speaker 1: subjected to discrimination, under any program or activity receiving federal 456 00:29:55,640 --> 00:30:00,720 Speaker 1: financial assistance. Then another law that Cobb's report made that 457 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: title apply to hospitals all over the country. That was 458 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,760 Speaker 1: the Social Security Act Amendments, also called the Medicare and 459 00:30:07,840 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: Medicaid Act of nineteen sixty five. Basically, Medicare provided hospital 460 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,880 Speaker 1: insurance and medical insurance to people aged sixty five and older, 461 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:21,000 Speaker 1: and Medicaid provided medical assistance for people with low incomes. 462 00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:25,440 Speaker 1: So the passage of Medicare and Medicaid meant that essentially 463 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:29,600 Speaker 1: every hospital in the United States would be accepting federal 464 00:30:29,680 --> 00:30:34,280 Speaker 1: financial assistance. In other words, together, the Medicaid Bill and 465 00:30:34,320 --> 00:30:39,840 Speaker 1: the Civil Rights Act essentially made hospital segregation illegal nationwide. 466 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:42,800 Speaker 1: This was one of the reasons the American Medical Association 467 00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:46,840 Speaker 1: had opposed the Medicare Bill. In fact, The only member 468 00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: of a professional medical society who had openly supported medicare 469 00:30:50,840 --> 00:30:55,760 Speaker 1: was W. Montague Cobb. Cobb endorsed the bill and testified 470 00:30:55,800 --> 00:31:00,200 Speaker 1: on its behalf before Congress. When President Lyndon Johnson's find 471 00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:04,240 Speaker 1: the legislation, Cobb was invited to witness the signing. This 472 00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,160 Speaker 1: was not the first time that Cobb had so publicly 473 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,160 Speaker 1: opposed the AMA. Back in nineteen forty six, he had 474 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:15,240 Speaker 1: testified before Congress in favor of the National Health Act, 475 00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:19,400 Speaker 1: which would have created a National Health Insurance Plan. Cobb 476 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:23,040 Speaker 1: endorsed the bill on behalf of the NAACP before Congress, 477 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 1: and he described the bill as having the potential quote 478 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,920 Speaker 1: to close the gap between advances in medical technology on 479 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,320 Speaker 1: the one hand, and the social and economic arrangements by 480 00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:37,160 Speaker 1: which medical services are made available on the other. In 481 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:41,440 Speaker 1: his testimony, he described health conditions in the US as 482 00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,960 Speaker 1: quote far from satisfactory, with quote the plight of the 483 00:31:46,040 --> 00:31:50,440 Speaker 1: Negro worse than that of the white. The AMA opposed 484 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:57,200 Speaker 1: this legislation and inaccurately branded its socialized medicine. It ultimately failed. 485 00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:01,560 Speaker 1: Cobb's advocacy for black doctors and other black professionals also 486 00:32:01,680 --> 00:32:05,480 Speaker 1: extended beyond their day to day working environments. In nineteen 487 00:32:05,520 --> 00:32:08,960 Speaker 1: fifty five, the American Association for the Advancement of Science 488 00:32:09,000 --> 00:32:13,400 Speaker 1: held its conference in Atlanta, Georgia. Cobb vigorously opposed this 489 00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:18,880 Speaker 1: choice of venue because Atlantis hotels were segregated. The AAAS 490 00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,320 Speaker 1: worked out a compromise which was for black attendees to 491 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:25,440 Speaker 1: be allowed into the host hotels for meetings, but not 492 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:29,840 Speaker 1: as overnight guests. Instead, they would stay at Atlanta University. 493 00:32:30,680 --> 00:32:33,760 Speaker 1: Cobb boycotted the meeting, and the next year the AAAS 494 00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,680 Speaker 1: implemented anti segregation policies for its conference locations. You like 495 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:40,840 Speaker 1: a lot of the compromises we've talked about on the show, 496 00:32:40,880 --> 00:32:44,040 Speaker 1: it's not really a compromise. And the people it was 497 00:32:44,080 --> 00:32:47,880 Speaker 1: offered to were like, are you kidding me? Cobb advocated 498 00:32:47,920 --> 00:32:51,200 Speaker 1: for the same change at the American Association of Anatomists 499 00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:54,880 Speaker 1: two years later. In nineteen sixty five, he traveled to Selma, 500 00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,280 Speaker 1: Alabama to support the physicians who had volunteered to offer 501 00:32:58,400 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: aid during the Selma to MCGA March. These are really 502 00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:05,800 Speaker 1: just some of the biggest highlights of w. Montagukob's career. 503 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,600 Speaker 1: He served as president of the Medicoturgical Society of the 504 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:12,760 Speaker 1: District of Columbia from nineteen forty five to nineteen forty seven, 505 00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:16,120 Speaker 1: and then again from nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty four. 506 00:33:16,920 --> 00:33:19,280 Speaker 1: He served as editor of the Journal of the National 507 00:33:19,280 --> 00:33:23,000 Speaker 1: Medical Association for twenty eight years, starting in nineteen forty nine, 508 00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:25,840 Speaker 1: and during that time he helped expand it from a 509 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:30,200 Speaker 1: temporary publication of the NMA to a respected medical journal. 510 00:33:30,920 --> 00:33:33,440 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty seven, he was named president of the 511 00:33:33,440 --> 00:33:37,520 Speaker 1: American Association of Physical Anthropologists. He served in that role 512 00:33:37,560 --> 00:33:41,320 Speaker 1: for two years. In nineteen sixty five, he served on 513 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,120 Speaker 1: the executive committee of the White House Conference on Health. 514 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:48,240 Speaker 1: He was the executive president of the NAACP from nineteen 515 00:33:48,280 --> 00:33:50,880 Speaker 1: seventy six to nineteen eighty three, and he was on 516 00:33:50,920 --> 00:33:55,240 Speaker 1: the NAACP board for thirty one years. Over the course 517 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,520 Speaker 1: of his career, he wrote more than one thousy one 518 00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:00,560 Speaker 1: hundred papers in his field, as well as series of 519 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 1: two hundred biographies of black doctors, and for most of 520 00:34:04,120 --> 00:34:07,240 Speaker 1: that time he also taught anatomy and shared the anatomy 521 00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:11,719 Speaker 1: department at Howard University. I am exhausted just reading that 522 00:34:11,840 --> 00:34:17,120 Speaker 1: list so much. Cobb's wife, Hilda, died in nineteen seventy six, 523 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:21,160 Speaker 1: they had been married for forty seven years. A year later, 524 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,120 Speaker 1: Cobb played the role of W. E. B. Du Bois 525 00:34:24,239 --> 00:34:27,080 Speaker 1: in a production called Without a Doubt at the Kennedy Center. 526 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:30,719 Speaker 1: This production was something his daughter, Amelia Cobb Gray, had 527 00:34:30,760 --> 00:34:34,320 Speaker 1: compiled and directed, and this was his stage debut. In 528 00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, Cobb was awarded the Henry Gray Award from 529 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:40,960 Speaker 1: the American Association of Anatomists, which is its highest award. 530 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,640 Speaker 1: Cobb continued his advocacy into his very last years. In 531 00:34:45,760 --> 00:34:49,120 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty two, the YMCA planned to close it's Anthony 532 00:34:49,160 --> 00:34:52,160 Speaker 1: Bowen branch in Washington, d c. And this was in 533 00:34:52,239 --> 00:34:55,040 Speaker 1: Cobb's childhood neighborhood, and it had also been the first 534 00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:59,280 Speaker 1: branch that the YMCA had established for black members. Cobb 535 00:34:59,400 --> 00:35:02,920 Speaker 1: argued vocally against this closure, both because of the branch's 536 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:07,000 Speaker 1: historical significance and because the neighborhood itself was desperately in 537 00:35:07,080 --> 00:35:11,880 Speaker 1: need of recreation and other services. The YMCA ultimately agreed 538 00:35:11,960 --> 00:35:14,319 Speaker 1: not to close the branch, but it did move it 539 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:18,440 Speaker 1: into a different facility, citing the original building's disrepair. In 540 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:23,239 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety w. Montaguekab was awarded the American Medical Association 541 00:35:23,560 --> 00:35:27,759 Speaker 1: Distinguished Service Award. He died on November twentieth of that 542 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,719 Speaker 1: same year at the age of eighty six. In his 543 00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:33,359 Speaker 1: own words, quote, when I go down, I hope I'll 544 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:36,560 Speaker 1: go down still pushing for something in the forward direction 545 00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:49,279 Speaker 1: that is mind blowing levels of achievement. I feel so lazy. 546 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,279 Speaker 1: Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. If 547 00:35:54,320 --> 00:35:56,480 Speaker 1: you'd like to send us a note, our email addresses 548 00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:01,239 Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com, and you can subscribe 549 00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:04,360 Speaker 1: to the show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 550 00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:06,400 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.