Topic | Solomon Carter Fuller

Solomon Carter Fuller

Description

Dr. Solomon Carter Fuller (1872–1953) was a pioneering African-American psychiatrist who made significant contributions to the study of Alzheimer’s disease. He was born in Liberia, the son of a previously enslaved African who had purchased his freedom and emigrated there. Fuller graduated with an MD in 1897 from Boston University School of Medicine, which as a homeopathic institution was open to both African-American and women students. He pursued further research at the psychiatric clinic of the University of Munich, Germany. He spent the majority of his career practicing at Westborough State Mental Hospital in Westborough, Massachusetts. While there, he performed his ground-breaking research on the physical changes to the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. When the Veterans Adminstration opened the Tuskegee Veterans Administration after WWI with an entirely black staff, Fuller was instrumental in recruiting and training black psychiatrists for key positions. In the early 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association established a Solomon Carter Fuller award lecture at its annual meetings. The Dr Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center located at 85 E Newton Street in Boston is named after him. It forms part of the Boston Medical Center, the primary teaching affiliate for Boston University School of Medicine.

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