Editing Charles R. Drew (section)

== Early life and education ==
[[File:Charles Richard Drew - Dunbar HS Yearbook Entry (1922).png|thumb|left|475px|Charles Drew's 1922 Dunbar High School yearbook entry.]]

Drew was born in 1904 into an [[African-American]] middle-class family in [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref name=SDBB/> His father, Richard, was a carpet layer<ref name="1930CXASS-USCensus">{{cite web|url= http://www.ancestry.com|title= Fifteenth Census of the United States (1930) [database on-line], Arlington Magisterial District, Arlington County, Virginia, Enumeration District: 7–11, Page: 6B, Line: 69, household of Richard T. Drew|publisher=The Generations Network|location=[[United States]]|date=1930-04-14| access-date=2013-08-15}}</ref> and his mother, Nora Burrell, trained as a teacher.<ref name=DrewPapers/> Drew and three (two sisters, one brother) of his four younger siblings (three sisters and one brother total) grew up in Washington's largely middle-class and interracial [[Foggy Bottom]] neighborhood.<ref name=DrewPapers/><ref name=SDBB/> From a young age Drew began work as a newspaper boy in his neighborhood, daily helping deliver over a thousand newspapers to his neighbors. Drew attended Washington's [[Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.)|Dunbar High School]] which was well known for its equality and opportunities for all, despite the racial climate at the time.<ref name=":0">Tan, Siang Yong; Merritt, Christopher (2017). "Charles Richard Drew (1904–1950): Father of blood banking". ''Singapore Medical Journal''. '''58''' (10): 593–594. [[Doi (identifier)|doi]]:10.11622/smedj.2017099. [[ISSN (identifier)|ISSN]] 0037-5675. [[PMC (identifier)|PMC]] 5651504. [[PMID (identifier)|PMID]] 29119194.</ref> From 1920 until his marriage in 1939, Drew's permanent address was in [[Arlington County, Virginia]],<ref name=NHL>(1) {{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1686&ResourceType=Building|title=Charles Richard Drew House|access-date=2008-04-11|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071231130002/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1686&ResourceType=Building|archive-date=2007-12-31|url-status=dead}}<br>(2) {{Cite journal|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Charles Richard Drew House|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/76002095_text|format=pdf|date=1976-02-02|first=Lynne Gomez, Historical Projects Director, Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation|last=Graves|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=2019-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117234224/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/76002095_text|archive-date=2019-01-17|url-status=dead}} and {{cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/76002095_photos|title=Accompanying 4 photos, exterior, from 1920 and 1976|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=2019-01-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190117234454/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NHLS/76002095_photos|archive-date=2019-01-17|url-status=dead}}</ref> although he graduated from Washington's Dunbar High School in 1922 and resided elsewhere during that period of time.<ref name=DrewPapers>{{cite web| title=The Charles R. Drew Papers|url=http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/retrieve/Narrative/BG/p-nid/336|publisher=U.S. National Library of Medicine|access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref><ref>(1) {{cite web|date=2017-02-20|first=Matt|last=Blitz|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190204210706/https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/charles-drew-lived-in-arlington/|archive-date=2019-02-04|url=https://www.arlingtonmagazine.com/charles-drew-lived-in-arlington/|title=Charles Drew Lived Here|work=Arlington Magazine|access-date=2019-02-04|via=GTexcel}}<br>(2) {{cite news|first= Charles B.|last=Drew|title= Stranger Than Fact|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/04/07/books/stranger-than-fact.html|work=[[The New York Times]]| date=1995-04-07|access-date=2012-08-25}}</ref>

Drew won an athletics scholarship to [[Amherst College]] in [[Massachusetts]],<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Charles Richard Drew|url=https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html|access-date=2021-05-11|website=American Chemical Society|language=en}}</ref> where he played on the football as well as the track and field team, and later graduated in 1926.<ref name=":0"/> After college, Drew spent two years (1926–1928) as a professor of chemistry and biology, the first [[athletic director]], and football coach at the [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically black]] private [[Morgan State University#History|Morgan College]] in [[Baltimore|Baltimore, Maryland]], to earn the money to pay for medical school.<ref name=DrewPapers/><ref>{{cite web
  | url        = https://news.morgan.edu/former-morgan-professor-dr-charles-drew-inducted-into-national-inventors-hall-of-fame/
  | title      = Former Morgan Professor Dr. Charles Drew Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame
  | date       = 2015-05-11
  | publisher  = Morgan State University
  | access-date = 2018-11-20
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
  | url        = https://morganstatebears.com/hof.aspx?hof=62
  | title      = Morgan State Bears Hall of Fame
  | publisher  = Morgan State Bears football team
  | access-date = 2018-11-20
}}</ref>

For his medical career Drew applied to [[Howard University Hospital|Howard University]], [[Harvard Medical School]] and later [[McGill University]].<ref name=":0"/> Drew lacked some prerequisites for Howard University, and Harvard wanted to defer him a year, so to begin medical school promptly, Drew decided to attend [[McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences|McGill's medical school]] in [[Montreal]], Canada.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Biographical Overview|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/bg/feature/biographical-overview|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Charles R. Drew – Profiles in Science|date=12 March 2019|language=en}}</ref>

It was during this stage in his medical journey that Drew worked with John Beattie, who was conducting research regarding the potential correlations between [[blood transfusion]]s and shock therapy.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Education and Early Medical Career, 1922–1938|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/spotlight/bg/feature/education|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Charles R. Drew – Profiles in Science|date=12 March 2019|language=en}}</ref> [[Shock (circulatory)|Shock]] occurs as the amount of blood in the body rapidly declines which can be due to a variety of factors such as a wound or lack of fluids (dehydration). As the body goes into shock, both blood pressure and body temperature decrease which then causes a lack of blood flow and a loss of oxygen in the body's tissues and cells. Eventually, it became clear that transfusions were the solution to treating victims of shock, but at the time there was no successful method of transportation or mass storage of blood, leaving transfusions to be extremely limited to location.<ref name=":2" />

At McGill, he achieved membership in [[Alpha Omega Alpha]], a scholastic honor society for medical students, ranked second in his graduating class of 127 students, and received the standard [[Doctor of Medicine]] and [[Master of Surgery]] degree awarded by the [[McGill University Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences|McGill University Faculty of Medicine]] in 1933.<ref name="NHL" /><ref name=":1" />

[[File:Freedman Hospital LCCN2016824750.jpg|thumb|Freedman's Hospital between 1910 and 1935]]
Drew's first appointment as a faculty instructor was for pathology at [[Howard University]] from 1935 to 1936.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|title=Charles R. Drew, MD {{!}} Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science|url=https://www.cdrewu.edu/about-cdu/about-dr-charles-r-drew|access-date=2021-05-11|website=www.cdrewu.edu}}</ref> He then joined [[Freedman's Hospital]], a federally operated facility associated with Howard University, as an instructor in surgery and an assistant surgeon. In 1938, Drew began graduate work at [[Columbia University]] in New York City on the award of a two-year [[Rockefeller fellowship]] in surgery. He then began postgraduate work, earning his [[Doctor of Science]] at Surgery at Columbia University. He spent time doing research at Columbia's [[Presbyterian Hospital (New York City)|Presbyterian Hospital]] and wrote a doctoral thesis, "[https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/bookviewer?PID=nlm:nlmuid-101584649X142-doc#page/1/mode/2up Banked Blood: A Study on Blood Preservation]," based on an exhaustive study of blood preservation techniques.<ref name=":4"/> It was through this blood preservation research where Drew realized blood plasma was able to be preserved, two months,<ref name=":0"/> longer through de-liquification, or the separation of liquid blood from the cells. When ready for use the plasma would then be able to return to its original state via reconstitution.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Charles Drew|url=https://www.biography.com/scientist/charles-drew|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Biography|date=3 September 2020 |language=en-us}}</ref> This thesis earned him his Doctor of Science in Medicine degree in 1940, becoming the first African American to do so.<ref name=":3"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/BGBBGD.pdf|last=Drew|first=Charles R.|title=Letter from Charles R. Drew to Edwin B. Henderson|date=1940-05-31|location=[[Bethesda, Maryland]]|publisher=[[National Institutes of Health]]: [[National Library of Medicine]]|access-date=2019-01-17|quote=On Tuesday I get the degree of Doctor of Science in Medicine.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190118020028/https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/ps/access/BGBBGD.pdf|archive-date=2019-01-18|url-status=dead}}</ref> The District of Columbia chapter of the [[American Medical Association]] allowed only white doctors to join, consequently "... Drew died without ever being accepted for membership in the AMA."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Wynes|first=Charles E.|url=https://archive.org/details/charlesricharddr0000wyne|title=Charles Richard Drew: The Man and the Myth|date=1988|publisher=University of Illinois Press (Urbana)|others=Internet Archive|isbn=978-0252015519|pages=84}}</ref>