API Honors Black History Month

Portrait by Stephen Coit, commissioned at the request of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relation's founding director, S. Allen Counter.

Honored by Harvard University's "Portrait of a Pioneer," Dr. Hinton was the first African-American to receive an appointment as a Clinical Professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard University. While it was Dr. Hinton's wish for his research to be equally recognized alongside his contemporaries, even declining an award from the NAACP, he holds great significance as a medical leader and research pioneer for African-Americans and other minority populations, including women and individuals of other racial and ethnic identities.

 Dr. Hinton was the first to develop a serological test for syphilis now known as the Hinton Test. His pioneering work not only established a standard blood test to quickly identify this disease, adopted by the U.S. Public Health Service, he also called on the medical community to consider socio-economic and racial factors that play a role in disease prevalence among certain populations. Dr. Hinton was a brilliant pathologist, a champion of women in science, and he was a conscientious public health steward in search of more reliable diagnostics and treatments for syphilis patients.  

 API is proud to recognize Dr. Hinton’s enduring legacy in medicine and pathology.