Dr Alexander T. Augusta

Alexander Thomas Augusta, physician, army officer, hospital administrator, professor, rights activist. Augusta fought anti-Black discrimination throughout his life. In 1853, he moved to Toronto, where he studied medicine at Trinity College. President of the Association for the Education of Coloured People in Canada. Augusta returned to the United States during the American Civil War and was the first Black officer in the Union army. In 1865, he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, becoming the army’s highest-ranking Black officer at the time. Augusta was the first Black hospital administrator and Black medical professor in the United States. He also fought racism and segregation in Washington, D.C., where he founded the National Medical Society of the District of Columbia.