Charles R. Drew

CTL-E-6215 · Person · physician · 1904–1950; blood-bank work 1938–1941

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07410 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6215.

Charles Richard Drew was an American surgeon and medical researcher born June 3, 1904, in Washington, DC, and a gifted college athlete at Amherst. He earned his medical degrees at McGill University in 1933, graduating second in a class of 137, then joined Howard University College of Medicine and Freedmen's Hospital in Washington. At Columbia University his doctoral research on blood preservation, presented in his dissertation on banked blood, made him the first African American to earn a doctor of medical science degree from Columbia. That work led him to direct the Blood for Britain project, which collected 14,556 donations and shipped over 5,000 liters of plasma to England, and then to help build the American Red Cross blood program, including mobile donation units known as bloodmobiles. He publicly criticized the segregation of donated blood as unscientific. In October 1941 he returned to Howard as head of surgery and chief surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital, devoting the rest of his career to training Black surgeons. He died April 1, 1950, in North Carolina after an automobile accident.

The record

• Also known as: Charles Richard Drew, Dr. Charles Drew

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 6 — 747 Program, Wave 13; sixth Scan Tail packet at the founder’s 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (script + hand-checked 2026-10-16): no Charles R. Drew entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). ID CTL-E-6215 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — scan string #2374 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json), banked in the Scan Tail Wave 5 reserve (Appendix E), re-screened CLEAR against the live graph at 3,910 entities by this wave. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: Foundational figure in transfusion medicine and Black medical education; in scope as a science and Howard University record, with no direct Chicago base. Vital status: DECEASED — born June 3, 1904, Washington, DC; died April 1, 1950, North Carolina, after an automobile accident (ACS, primary; Columbia gives 1904-1950). STATISTICS — Blood for Britain: 14,556 donations collected and over 5,000 liters of plasma shipped by January 1941 (ACS); McGill class rank second of 137 (ACS); Spingarn Medal 1944 (ACS). No conflict found between the two opened sources on dates or totals. MEDIA: photo HELD (Charles R. Drew in a laboratory, c. 1940-1941, pictured on the American Chemical Society page; HELD — no license is claimed and a file-level PHOTO-001 record is required before any use.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6215-charles-r-drew.svg); video HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short found in the Shorts Link Map (2026-10-15, 233 Shorts searched by name and variants); near-miss: none titled for Drew.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Person records carry no map slot; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record’s sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (No matching-entity CTL Short found in the Shorts Link Map (2026-10-15, 233 Shorts searched by name and variant) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Relationships

• Howard University — affiliated with
  Drew joined Howard University College of Medicine, became head of its Department of Surgery in October 1941 and chief surgeon at Freedmen's Hospital (ACS). Graph endpoint found as Howard University, School/university, CTL-E-0312.

Sources

• American Chemical Society, Charles Richard Drew (accessed 2026-10-16) — born June 3, 1904, Washington, DC; died April 1, 1950, North Carolina; McGill MD/CM 1933, second in class of 137; Howard University and Freedmen's Hospital posts; Columbia dissertation Banked Blood and first African American medical doctorate from Columbia; Blood for Britain collected 14,556 donations and shipped over 5,000 liters of plasma; bloodmobiles; criticized blood segregation as unscientific and insulting; head of surgery at Howard and chief surgeon at Freedmen's from October 1941; Spingarn Medal 1944 — https://www.acs.org/explore/african-americans-in-sciences/charles-richard-drew.html (primary source · build store)
• Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Charles Drew, Blood Bank Pioneer (2023) (accessed 2026-10-16) — doctor of medical science degree in 1940 from Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, the first Black researcher to earn this degree in the United States; dissertation based on blood-plasma preservation research in a blood bank he and John Scudder established at Presbyterian Hospital; organized and directed the blood-plasma programs of the United States and Great Britain in the early years of World War II; Drew dates given as 1904-1950 — https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/charles-drew-blood-bank-pioneer (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6215 · Combined Graph record U-07410 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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