TN SJR0663

Tennessee General Assembly honors Meharry Medical College on its 150th anniversary (sesquicentennial) in 2026, recognizing its founding in Nashville in 1876 as the Medical Department of Central Tennessee College

Meharry was the first medical school in the South for African Americans and the first in the South to offer four-year medical training; founded by Dr. George W. Hubbard and Dr. William J. Snead with 11 students

The college expanded to include the School of Dentistry (1886), School of Pharmacy (1889), and achieved autonomy with a separate charter in 1915; now operates five schools including Medicine, Dentistry, Global Health, Graduate Studies, and Applied Computational Sciences

Dr. Georgia Esther Lee Patton Washington became the first Black woman to graduate from Meharry in 1893 and the first Black woman licensed to practice medicine and surgery in Tennessee

The institution has launched "Campaign 150" to strengthen institutional excellence, expand community care, and foster research under current president James E.K. Hildreth, Sr., Ph.D., M.D.