Context: Abraham Flexner was a white educational specialist tasked in 1910 to assess the state of medical education. By 1923, his report led to the closure of 5 of 7 existing Black medial schools. It’s estimated these schools would have trained 25-35K Black physicians. https://twitter.com/aamctoday/status/1328820521593659399

Flexner was commissioned by the American Medical Association and the Carnegie Foundation. The closure of these Black medical schools have had a tremendous and lasting impact on Black health by reducing the number of Black physicians to this day and compromising Black health.

Black students, he said, should be trained as “sanitarians” rather than surgeons and their primary role should be to protect White people from disease. “A well-taught negro sanitarian will be immensely useful; an essentially untrained negro wearing an M.D. degree is dangerous,”

Tbh, the award should never have been named after him. This is how trauma is continuously inflicted upon Black people. To celebrate and honor this man by naming an award after him- a racist- was egregious. AAMC gets no thank you’s from me for this change.