---
title: "Meharry College — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "Meharry College is an HBCU that founded a medical school to train Black physicians excluded from white institutions. Key to Topic 4.20 and LO 4.20.B on the exam."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/meharry-college"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Meharry College — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

Meharry College is a historically Black college and university (HBCU) that established a medical school to train African American physicians and medical professionals who were barred from mainstream American medical institutions, a core example of Black-built healthcare infrastructure in Topic 4.20.

## What It Is

Meharry College is an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee, best known for its medical school, one of the first institutions in the United States dedicated to training [African American](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/10-black-pride-identity-and-the-question-of-naming/study-guide/sCMCOOHW7DRtM6jH "fv-autolink") doctors, dentists, and other health professionals. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, white [medical schools](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/20-science-medicine-and-technology-in-black-communities/study-guide/GGvwKPixbIHELH9o "fv-autolink") and hospitals shut Black applicants out almost entirely. Meharry existed to solve that problem directly. Instead of waiting for mainstream institutions to integrate, Black communities built their own pipeline for producing physicians.

In the CED, Meharry appears in EK 4.20.B.2 alongside [Howard University](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/howard-university "fv-autolink") and Morehouse as an example of HBCUs that established medical schools, and alongside the National Medical Association, which Black physicians founded because the American Medical Association denied them membership. Think of Meharry as the training half of a two-part system. HBCU medical schools produced the doctors, and Black-run hospitals and professional organizations gave those doctors places to practice and a professional community to belong to.

## Why It Matters

Meharry lives in **Topic 4.20, Science, Medicine, and Technology in Black Communities ([Unit 4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4 "fv-autolink"): Movements and Debates)** and directly supports **LO 4.20.B**, which asks you to describe African Americans' contributions to American medical care, training, and medical advancements. Meharry is your go-to evidence for the 'training' part of that learning objective. It also connects to EK 4.20.B.1, since the physicians trained at schools like Meharry staffed nonsegregated hospitals in the late nineteenth century and powered the Black hospital movement of the mid-twentieth century. The bigger theme here is [self-determination](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/18-colonization-and-belonging-in-america/study-guide/nYvYLqQghOZ7QK9T "fv-autolink"). When exclusion blocked one door, African Americans built parallel institutions, and Meharry is one of the clearest examples of that pattern anywhere in the course.

## Connections

### [Howard University (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/howard-university)

Howard is the other HBCU medical school the CED names explicitly in EK 4.20.B.2. Together, Meharry and Howard trained the overwhelming majority of Black physicians during the [Jim Crow era](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-3/1-the-reconstruction-amendments/study-guide/xCbCharSeaexxarp "fv-autolink"), so the exam often groups them as a single phenomenon, HBCU medical schools.

### [Daniel Hale Williams (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/daniel-hale-williams)

Williams, the surgeon who performed one of the first successful open-heart surgeries, represents what Meharry-style training made possible. Black medical schools produced the doctors, and pioneers like Williams founded the nonsegregated hospitals where they could actually practice.

### Eugenics and forced sterilization (Unit 4)

Topic 4.20 pairs Black medical achievement with medical injustice. While Meharry was training Black doctors to care for excluded communities, the [eugenics](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/eugenics "fv-autolink") movement was using medicine against those same communities through stigmatization and forced sterilization. Knowing both sides lets you write a fuller answer about Black communities and American medicine.

### Kizzmekia Corbett and the Moderna Covid-19 mRNA vaccine (Unit 4)

Corbett's work on the Covid-19 vaccine is the modern endpoint of the story Meharry starts. The CED traces a continuity from nineteenth-century Black medical training to twenty-first-century Black scientists leading national medical breakthroughs.

## On the AP Exam

Meharry shows up most often in multiple-choice questions testing LO 4.20.B. Common stems ask you to identify an HBCU that established a medical school to train Black physicians, to name the type of institution Meharry and Morehouse represent (HBCUs), or to connect the same era of exclusion to the National Medical Association, which Black doctors founded after the AMA denied them membership. No released FRQ has used Meharry by name, but it works as concrete evidence for short-answer or essay prompts about how African Americans built parallel institutions in response to segregation. The move to practice is pairing Meharry with a cause (exclusion from white medical schools) and an effect (a trained corps of Black physicians who staffed nonsegregated hospitals and the Black hospital movement).

## Meharry College vs Howard University

Both are HBCUs with medical schools named in EK 4.20.B.2, so they're easy to swap on an MCQ. Howard is the broader, federally chartered university in Washington, D.C. with a medical school among many programs, while Meharry, in Nashville, is known specifically as a health sciences institution centered on medical and dental training. For the exam, you rarely need to distinguish them in detail. What matters is that both answer the same question, which is where Black physicians trained when mainstream medical schools excluded them.

## Key Takeaways

- Meharry College is an HBCU that established a medical school to train African American physicians who were barred from mainstream American medical institutions.
- It appears in EK 4.20.B.2 alongside Howard University and Morehouse as evidence for LO 4.20.B, African American contributions to medical care and training.
- Meharry is part of a larger parallel-institution pattern that includes the National Medical Association, founded because the AMA denied Black physicians membership.
- Physicians trained at HBCU medical schools like Meharry helped staff America's first nonsegregated hospitals and drove the mid-twentieth-century Black hospital movement.
- On the exam, use Meharry as concrete evidence that African Americans responded to exclusion by building their own medical training infrastructure, not by waiting for integration.

## FAQs

### What is Meharry College in AP African American Studies?

Meharry is an HBCU in Nashville, Tennessee that established a medical school to train African American doctors and health professionals excluded from white medical institutions. It's named in EK 4.20.B.2 as a key example of Black-built medical training.

### Why did Meharry College need to create its own medical school?

During the Jim Crow era, mainstream American medical schools and the American Medical Association excluded Black applicants and physicians. HBCUs like Meharry filled that gap by training Black doctors directly, and Black physicians separately founded the [National Medical Association](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/national-medical-association "fv-autolink") for professional support.

### Is Meharry the only HBCU with a medical school?

No. The CED also names Howard University and Morehouse as HBCUs that established medical schools. Meharry stands out because it is centered specifically on health sciences training, but the exam usually tests these schools as one category.

### How is Meharry College different from the Black hospital movement?

Meharry trained the doctors; the Black hospital movement built the places where they practiced. EK 4.20.B.1 covers the hospitals, EK 4.20.B.2 covers the training institutions, and together they form the full picture LO 4.20.B asks about.

### What unit and topic is Meharry College in for the AP exam?

Meharry falls under Topic 4.20, Science, Medicine, and Technology in Black Communities, in Unit 4: Movements and Debates. It supports learning objective 4.20.B on African American contributions to medical care and training.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.20 Science, Medicine, and Technology in Black Communities](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/20-science-medicine-and-technology-in-black-communities/study-guide/GGvwKPixbIHELH9o)

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