Dr. Daniel Hale Williams III  was the first surgeon to successfully perform open heart surgery in 1893. He was born in Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania on January 18th 1856 to Sarah Price Williams and Daniel Hale Williams II. He was the eldest of eight children.

His father, a barber, passed when Williams was 10 years of age from tuberculosis. His mother sent him from Annapolis, Maryland (where they had moved) to Baltimore, Maryland to become the apprentice of a shoemaker. He disliked his new position so much that he ultimately left, and followed his family who had moved to Illinois and took up barbering just as his father had.

Desiring more, Williams pursued his education. He became an apprentice to a highly successful surgeon named Dr.. Henry Palmer and graduated from Chicago Medical School in 1883. Although he had obtained all necessary credentials, African Americans were refused care in hospitals and denied employment as staff members.

Dr. Williams remained determined to serve all people, so he opened his own practice on the Southside of Chicago and taught anatomy at his alma mater. Feeling compelled to do more for his community, Dr. Williams founded Provident Hospital and Training School for Nurses in 1891. The first-of-its-kind in Chicago, this hospital was Black owned and had an interracial staff and served people from all backgrounds. Two years later in 1893 he performed the first successful open heart surgery on James Cornish. After undergoing surgery he walked out without complications 51 days later.

Dr. Williams continued to make huge impacts within his community. After becoming the chief surgeon of Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 1894, he drastically decreased the hospital’s mortality rate through his improvements. In 1895 in response to African Americans being denied membership into the American Medical Association he co-founded the National Medical Association, a professional organization for Black medical practitioners. He returned to Chicago and continued to break barriers and serve his community for another 20 years. In 1931, he died at 75 years of age in Idlewild, Michigan.

A native of Phoenix, Arizona Aundrea Sayrie is a firm believer in the power of words, faith and a strong spirit. Her greatest desire is to encourage those around her to discover and honor their truth, and to passionately live on purpose.