Meharry Medical College is a graduate and professional institution that is affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College, it was the first medical school for African Americans in the South, which then held the highest proportion of this ethnicity.

Meharry Medical College was chartered separately in 1915. In the early 21st century, it has become the largest private historically black institution in the United States solely dedicated to educating health care professionals and scientists.^[4]

Meharry Medical College includes its School of Medicine, School of Dentistry, a School of Allied Health Professions, School of Graduate Studies and Research, the Harold R. West Basic Sciences Center, and the Metropolitan General Hospital of Nashville-Davidson County. The degrees that Meharry offers include Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.), Master of Health Science (M.H.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees. Meharry is the second-largest educator of African-American medical doctors and dentists in the United States.^[5] It has the highest percentage of African Americans graduating with Ph.Ds in the biomedical sciences in the country.

Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved is a public health journal owned by and edited at Meharry Medical College.

The college was named for Samuel Meharry, a young Scots-Irish immigrant who first worked as a salt trader on the Kentucky-Tennessee frontier. After achieving some success, he and four of his brothers later made a major donation to help establish the college.

As a young trader, Meharry had been traveling through the rough terrain of Kentucky when his wagon slipped off the road and slid into a swamp. He was aided by a family of freedmen, whose names are unknown, who gave him food and shelter that night. The next morning they helped him to get his wagon and contents back on the road. Meharry reportedly told the former slave family, "I have no money, but when I can I shall do something for your race."^[6]

In 1875, Samuel Meharry, together with four of his brothers, donated a total of $15,000 to assist with establishing a medical department at Central Tennessee College (CTC), a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee.^[6] With the contribution of the Freedman's Aid Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, George W. Hubbard and Dr. John Braden, a Methodist Episcopal cleric who was serving as president of CTC,^[7] opened the Medical College in 1876.

Hubbard served as the founding president of the medical college. Its first class included eleven students. Of these eleven students, one graduated in 1877. The second class, which had its commencement in 1878, had three graduates. In 1886, the Dental Department was founded, followed by a Pharmacy Department founded in 1889.^[8][9]

Among the second class of graduates was Lorenzo Dow Key, the son of Hillery Wattsworth Key and his wife. Key, together with Braden, was one of the founding members of the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, North. Years before the Civil War, the church had split into Methodist Episcopal Church North and Methodist Episcopal Church South on the issue of slavery; it did not reunite until 1939.

In 1900, Central Tennessee College changed its name to Walden University in honor of John Morgan Walden, a bishop of the Methodist Church who had ministered to freedmen. In 1915, the medical department faculty of Walden University received a separate charter as Meharry Medical College.^[8] It included the departments of pharmacy and dentistry. The Medical College remained in its original buildings, and Walden University moved to another campus in Nashville.

Meharry Medical College was one of the fourteen medical institutions established between the years of 1868 and 1907. Of these fourteen schools, six were located in the state of Tennessee. These schools were founded after the end of the Civil War, when slaves had been freed and there were as yet few African-American physicians, and many freedmen in need of health care. In the common segregation, most hospitals would not admit African Americans and many white physicians often chose not to serve freedmen. During the late 19th century and into the early 20th century, most medical institutions accepted few, if any, African-American students. To combat this shortage of health care and the lack of accessibility to medical education, individuals, such as Samuel Meharry, and organizations, such as the Medical Association of Colored Physicians, Surgeons, Dentists, and Pharmacists (later renamed the National Medical Association), helped to found medical schools specifically for African Americans.^[10]

Since its founding, Meharry Medical College has added several graduate programs in the areas of science, medicine, and public health. In 1938, the School of Graduate Studies and Research was founded. The first master's degree program, a Master of Science in Public Health, was established in 1947. In 1972, a Ph.D. program was implemented. A decade later in 1982, Meharry established an M.D/Ph.D. program. In 2004, Meharry created a Master's of Science in Clinical Investigation program (2004).^[11]

On November 9, 2017, Meharry, under president James E.K. Hildreth, signed a memorandum of agreement with Hospital Corporation of America, America's largest for-profit operator of health care facilities. Under the agreement, Meharry's medical students will gain clinical training at HCA's TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville.^[12]

Meharry students had previously received clinical training at numerous sites, primarily Nashville General Hospital, which had moved on-campus in the 1990s.^[13] Withdrawal of the alliance with Meharry is thought to threaten the provision of inpatient care at Nashville General Hospital.^[14] A board member resigned over this surprise decision and announcement.^[15]

George W. Hubbard served as Meharry Medical College's first president from its founding in 1876 until his death in 1921.

The second president of the school was Dr. John J. Mullowney, who served from 1921 to 1938. He implemented changes in order to improve Meharry’s overall academic rating. Admission requirements were tightened and strictly enforced, a superintendent was installed at the hospital, and number of faculty, research facilities, and hospital facilities were all expanded. Two years after Mullowney took leadership, Meharry Medical College received an ‘A’ rating.^[16]

Succeeding Meharry Medical College presidents have been:

From 1950-1952 a committee guided the institution instead of a president. In 1952, Meharry welcomed its first African-American president, Dr. Harold D. West. West made numerous changes, made possible by his successful $20 million fund drive. He added a new wing to Hubbard Hospital, eliminated the nursing and the dental technology programs, and purchased land adjacent to the campus for expansion.^[16]

In 2005, Meharry was censured by the American Association of University Professors for not observing generally recognized principles of academic freedom and tenure.^[17][18]

Seven universities are in partnership with Meharry to help recruit and prepare their pre-med students to enroll at Meharry. The seven universities are Alabama A&M University, Albany State University, Fisk University, Grambling State University, Jackson State University, Southern University, and Tennessee State University.^[19]