Paul B. Cornely, 1928, MD’31, DPH’34, HSCD’68

Born in Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe, Cornely’s family eventually settled in Detroit in 1920. While an undergrad, Cornely was a member of the Negro-Caucasian Club. Though he wanted to stay in Ann Arbor after graduating from the Medical School, U-M’s hospital did not hire Black doctors; Cornely eventually took a position at segregated Lincoln Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. He returned to U-M to earn his doctorate in public health, becoming the first African American to earn the degree in 1934. He served as a professor and leader at Howard University from 1934 to 1973 and pushed for hospital desegregation and health care equality throughout his life. The Community Room of the U-M School of Public Health was named in Cornely’s honor in 2022.