The existence of the Negro medical schools grew out of a culture which America would like to forget-for they were brought about because other schools would not admit Negro students. When the heads of other schools said that Negroes did not have the intelligence (or background) to become doctors, these schools showed that not only could they become doctors, but that some would serve with distinction. There have been many changes in the past 95 years and these schools persist as vignettes to remind us of a past theory that black men had inferior minds, or a later period when black doctors could not have appointments in some hospitals or top posts in medical schools, or belong to county societies. Precisely because these schools remind us of things which black and white Americans would like to forget, it would be easy to blame these schools for the ills which they