Father of the Blood Bank & Pioneer of Blood Plasma Preservation
June 3, 1904 – April 1, 1950
🇺🇸 United StatesCharles Richard Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, D.C., to a middle-class African American family. His father, Richard, worked as a carpet layer, while his mother, Nora, was a teacher. Growing up in the nation's capital during the Jim Crow era, Drew experienced firsthand the contradictions of American democracy—living in the shadow of monuments to freedom while facing daily discrimination.
As a young man, Drew excelled in both academics and athletics. He attended Dunbar High School, one of the premier African American schools in the country, where he was a star athlete in football, basketball, baseball, and track. His athletic prowess earned him a scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts, one of the few predominantly white institutions that accepted Black students at the time.
At Amherst, Drew continued to distinguish himself athletically and academically. He won the Mossman Trophy as the man who contributed most to athletics during his four years there—a remarkable achievement for an African American student in the 1920s. But it was a personal tragedy during college that would set the course for his life's work: one of his teammates died from lack of available blood for a transfusion. This loss planted the seeds for Drew's future dedication to blood research.
After graduating from Amherst in 1926, Drew worked as an athletic director and chemistry instructor while saving money for medical school. In 1928, he enrolled at McGill University Medical School in Montreal, Canada. He chose McGill partly because Canadian institutions were less segregated than American medical schools, though he still faced discrimination.
At McGill, Drew flourished academically. He won several prizes and awards, including the annual prize in neuroanatomy. He also became a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, an exceptional achievement. During his time at McGill, he became interested in blood transfusions and began researching blood storage—work that would define his career.
Drew graduated from McGill in 1933 with both M.D. and C.M. (Master of Surgery) degrees, finishing second in his class. He completed a residency in surgery at Montreal General Hospital, gaining experience that few African American physicians of his era could access in the United States. This Canadian training proved crucial, as he developed surgical skills and research interests that would later save countless lives.
In 1938, Drew returned to the United States to pursue advanced studies at Columbia University in New York. He worked at Presbyterian Hospital and conducted research at Columbia's medical school, focusing on a problem that had vexed medicine for decades: how to store blood for extended periods without it degrading or becoming unusable.
At the time, blood transfusions required fresh blood—donated just hours before use. Blood could only be stored for about a week using refrigeration, and it required careful matching of blood types. These limitations meant hospitals struggled to maintain adequate blood supplies, especially during emergencies. Soldiers wounded on battlefields often died from blood loss because transfusions weren't available.
Drew's breakthrough came from focusing on blood plasma—the liquid portion of blood without the red and white cells. He discovered that plasma could be dried and stored for much longer periods than whole blood. When needed, the dried plasma could be reconstituted with sterile water. Even more importantly, plasma didn't require blood type matching, making it universally usable in emergencies.
His doctoral dissertation, "Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation," revolutionized the field. In 1940, Drew earned his Doctor of Medical Science degree—becoming one of the first African Americans to earn this degree from Columbia. His research established the scientific foundation for modern blood banking, developing techniques for processing, testing, and storing blood plasma that are still used today.
Drew's research couldn't have come at a more critical time. In 1940, Britain was under siege during the Blitz, with German bombs raining down on London nightly. British soldiers and civilians desperately needed blood transfusions, but shipping fresh blood across the Atlantic was impossible—it would spoil before arrival.
Drew's plasma preservation methods offered a solution. The "Blood for Britain" program was established, and Dr. Drew was appointed medical supervisor. He organized the collection, processing, and shipment of blood plasma from donors across America to Britain. The program was an enormous logistical challenge—coordinating hundreds of donation centers, processing facilities, and transport systems.
Drew developed standardized procedures for blood collection, testing for diseases, separating plasma, and shipping it safely. His organizational genius was as important as his scientific contributions. The "Blood for Britain" program shipped thousands of units of life-saving plasma across the Atlantic, helping wounded soldiers and bombed civilians survive. The program's success proved that large-scale blood banking was feasible and effective.
Following the success of "Blood for Britain," Drew was appointed director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank in 1941. When the United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor, the need for blood became urgent for American forces fighting across Europe and the Pacific. Drew was tasked with creating a nationwide blood collection system to support the U.S. military.
He designed and implemented systems for collecting blood on a massive scale, establishing donation centers across the country. He developed training programs for technicians and nurses, standardized testing procedures, and created the logistics for transporting blood from collection centers to military hospitals and battlefields. His work saved thousands of American lives during the war.
However, Drew faced a profound moral dilemma. Despite his scientific leadership and the fact that blood type knows no race, the U.S. military ordered that blood donations be segregated by race. "White blood" was kept separate from "Black blood"—a policy with no scientific basis, rooted purely in racism. Drew knew this was absurd and harmful, wasting precious resources and perpetuating dangerous myths about racial differences.
In 1942, Drew resigned from his position with the Red Cross to protest the blood segregation policy. He spoke publicly against the practice, using his scientific authority to challenge racial pseudoscience. "It was a bad mistake for three reasons," he said. "First, no official department of the Federal Government should willfully humiliate its citizens. Second, there is no scientific basis for the order. Third, in an emergency blood should go to anybody, regardless of race."
After leaving the Red Cross, Drew returned to Howard University College of Medicine, where he had taught before the war. He became professor and head of the Department of Surgery, and later chief of staff at Freedmen's Hospital (now Howard University Hospital). He was the first African American surgeon to serve as an examiner for the American Board of Surgery.
Drew dedicated himself to training the next generation of African American surgeons. At a time when most hospitals wouldn't admit Black doctors and most medical schools wouldn't accept Black students, Howard was a crucial institution. Drew trained hundreds of Black physicians and surgeons, many of whom went on to distinguished careers, breaking barriers across American medicine.
He continued his advocacy against medical segregation, working with the NAACP and other organizations to integrate hospitals and medical schools. In 1944, he was awarded the NAACP's Spingarn Medal, the organization's highest honor, for his outstanding achievement in the field of medicine.
Tragically, Dr. Drew's life was cut short at age 45. On April 1, 1950, he died from injuries sustained in a car accident near Burlington, North Carolina. Despite myths that later circulated suggesting he died because a "whites only" hospital refused to treat him, historical records show he received prompt medical attention. The injuries were simply too severe. His death was a tremendous loss to medicine and to the fight for racial justice.
Dr. Drew's blood banking innovations saved countless lives during World War II and created the foundation for modern blood donation systems used worldwide today.
Dr. Charles Drew's legacy extends far beyond his scientific contributions. Every time someone receives a blood transfusion today—whether from a car accident, surgery, cancer treatment, or childbirth—they benefit from systems Drew pioneered. Modern blood banks, plasma storage techniques, and standardized collection procedures all trace back to his groundbreaking research in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
His moral courage was equally important. At the height of his career, Drew sacrificed his prestigious position to protest blood segregation—a policy he knew was scientifically baseless and morally wrong. He used his authority as a leading physician to challenge racist pseudoscience, insisting that blood knows no race. His stand helped delegitimize racial myths and contributed to the eventual integration of American medicine.
Drew's work as an educator was transformative. As head of surgery at Howard University during a time when most medical institutions excluded African Americans, he trained generations of Black surgeons who went on to break barriers across the country. Many of his students became the first Black physicians to integrate hospitals, medical schools, and professional organizations in their regions.
Today, the American Red Cross, which Drew once directed, collects blood from millions of donors annually without regard to race. Modern blood banking systems in virtually every country use techniques he developed. His legacy lives on in every emergency room, every surgical suite, every battlefield hospital that saves lives through transfusions. Dr. Charles Drew proved that scientific excellence and moral courage could triumph over prejudice, saving millions of lives in the process.