Alvin Crawford, MD, FACS, graduated cum laude from Tennessee State University in 1960, earning degrees in chemistry and music. In 1964, he became the first African-American to graduate from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.
Dr. Crawford completed his residency at the U.S. Naval Hospital Chelsea (Boston), and the Combined Harvard Orthopaedic Residency Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital.
Dr. Crawford became the Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in 1977 and remained chief for 29 years. He is one of the nation's foremost authorities on video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery, and among his achievements is serving as the first African-American president of the Scoliosis Society.
“Well, you know, we think that you’ve got all it takes for the military, but I think that you could be better served, and we would like to have you trained at Harvard.” (8:18-8:27)
“But being as competitive as I am, I said, ‘Fine, and let’s start.’ So anyway, I went to school. I started at the University of Tennessee, in January of 1961.” (14:48-15:02)
“But so, Jack said, ‘Dr. Pampas, I have to tell you that Alvin is -- is -- he’s a Negro.’ I don’t recall exactly whether I was a ‘Negro’ or a ‘Black.’ I knew it wasn’t African American. That didn’t come until a long time after that. But anyway, Art just looked at him and said, ‘Well, do you think he could make it at 7:30?’ |LS|Laughter] And that was the end of it. And from that point on, things were good.” (20:22-20:48)
“And then I fell in love with orthopedists, because they weren’t saving anyone from death, but they were making everybody better. And I just loved it.” (26:34-26:48)
“Well, I went to Children’s |LS|Boston Children’s Hospital], and I fell in love with children. And the thing was that children want to get better and go out and play with their friends. And they don’t really care what you look like, or who you are, or whatever, so long as you can get them back to playing with their friends. And they love you forever.” (26:59-27:18)
“You have no idea as to how it feels to an organization of African-Americans |LS|that] people are talking about something…you are under the impression that you participated in. But there’s no documentation of it.” (50:18-50:39)
“But more important are what I consider, and I call euphemistically, my children. I had 57 fellows that I’ve trained, pretty much from all over the world. And a lot of them from under-developed, under-served countries, and I’ve not only trained them, they -- some have gone back from the States, and have done mission surgery in a lot of those places where they’ve been.” (38:27-38:52)