Nathan Francis Mossell

Nathan Francis Mossell (1856–1946) was a pioneering African American physician and civil rights advocate. He was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania's medical school in 1882. Mossell went on to become a leader in advancing medical care for Black communities and worked tirelessly to combat racial discrimination in the medical field.

In 1895, he co-founded the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in Philadelphia, providing medical care to Black patients who were often denied treatment elsewhere, while also offering professional training for Black nurses and doctors.

Nathan Francis Mossell's father was a thoughtful man of few words, a man who learned to read in night school and who went into business for himself as a brickmaker. He was also a righteous man. The men who worked for him never used profanity in his presence as they held him in such high regard.

Nathan's mother inspired her son and his siblings to aim high with stories of grandparents overcoming obstacles. Stories such as the one about his maternal grandfather, who was freed as a young man. "He was useless to his master because he viciously resisted his masters attempt to bend [his] will." Then there was Nathan's paternal grandfather, who bought his and his wife's freedom.

Overcoming adversity was part of Nathan's lineage. He followed in the path.

Born in Canada, raised mostly in New York, he began working part-time at age nine while still attending school. After completing high school, Nathan attended Lincoln University and, upon graduating, was admitted to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1879. He was the first black American student accepted into the program.

As Nathan started medical school, he encountered protests from many in the student body. Of the experience, he said,

"I attended the opening lecture at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. I walked down the center aisle in the capacity-filled amphitheater to a seat very near the front. From both sides of the aisle I was accompanied by a storm of protest."

But some students stood up for Nathan. "A student by whom I sat asked me why I did not get up and tell them, 'go to hell.' I replied that I was not disturbed the least bit; whereupon he jumped on the seat, turned his face to the crowd, and said in a ringing voice, 'Go to hell! You act like a pack of D... fools.' In response he got some applause, making me know that everyone had not participated in the first demonstration," Nathan said.

Nathan worked hard and persisted, and in 1882, became the first black American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He earned second honors in his class. At graduation, his classmates reacted differently than when he started.

"When my name was called and I ascended the stage of the Academy of Music to receive my diploma, the students in the pit of the hall, greeted my name with almost deafening applause."

In 1888, he became the first black physician elected as a Philadelphia County Medical Society member. That same year, he started his private practice. In 1895, he helped establish the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School in West Philadelphia, where he served as chief-of-staff and medical director until retiring in 1933.

Beyond his medical career, Nathan was deeply involved in civil rights and community work. He co-founded the Philadelphia Academy of Medicine and Allied Sciences in 1900 and was a founding member and director of the Philadelphia branch of the NAACP in 1910.

Nathan passed away on October 27, 1946, in Philadelphia at age 90. He was believed to be the oldest practicing black physician at the time of his death.

Nathan Francis Mossell was a pioneer physician who established the first black private hospital in Philadelphia, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School, that both treated African Americans and trained black nurses and doctors.

Uncle to All-Star Sadie Mossell Alexander, he was the first African American to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania medical school, and the first to join the Philadelphia County Medical Society.

Mossell was also an activist, founding the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP, and joining W.E.B. DuBois’ Niagara Movement.

Mossell left his papers to Penn, including his autobiography in which he writes, “It is plain therefore, that prior to the Civil War, the so-called free colored people had few, if any, rights that the white man felt bound to respect. This mental attitude on his part, so hampered the colored people’s ideas of themselves that it still shrouds their efforts to attain a more inclusive legal franchise for themselves.”

FINAL WORD: In Mossell’s autobiography, he writes, “One may wonder how a physician can find so much time to champion the cause of his people. I have been no less spared from the indignities of segregation and discrimination than the non-professional colored person. In waging a fight to help free others from the infringements of Jim Crowism, I also help free myself.”

After opening his office at 924 Lombard Street, young Dr. Mossell quickly began to have an impact on Philadelphia medical practice and on the position of African Americans in the city and beyond. In August of 1895 he became the leading figure in the founding of the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital and Training School – the second Black hospital in the United States, and one that would not only treat African American patients, but also offer interships to Black doctors and nursing training to Black women. Dr. Mossell’s former Penn professors (including Agnew, Tyson, Pepper, and Leidy) were among the initial contributors, and Eugene T. Hinson, M. D. 1898, was one of the hospital’s African American physicians. Since its establishment of a 15-bed facility in a house at 1512 Lombard Street, Douglass Hospital has had a history of supporting the African American community in Philadelphia. In 1909, a new building with 75 beds opened at 1534 Lombard Street. In 1948, two years after Mossell’s death, Douglass Hospital merged with another predominantly black hospital, Mercy, to create Mercy Douglass Hospital on Woodland Avenue between 50th and 51st Streets in West Philadelphia. This hospital continued its care of African American Philadelphians until its closing in 1973. Mossell worked for over thirty-five years as the hospital’s chief-of-staff and medical director, retiring in 1933. He continued his private medical practice, however, until shortly before his death in October of 1946, at the age of ninety.

DMU Timestamp: February 26, 2025 22:37