# Blood Bank

*Black physicians and donors helped build modern blood banking, while segregation forced blood to be classified and managed by race.*

> Black's Encyclopedia — the sourced record of Black American life.
> Portal: Science & Invention · Status: In review · Revised: July 22, 2026 · Revisions: 1
> Canonical: https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-bank-04f3

## Questions this record answers

- Who built the modern blood bank system?
- Were blood banks segregated by race?
- What did Black doctors and donors contribute to blood plasma preservation?

## Summary

Black doctors, technicians, and donors helped build the modern blood bank, even as segregated policy distorted who could give, receive, and be publicly credited.

## The archive's standing

The blood bank is one of the central medical inventions of the twentieth century, and Black American labor belongs inside that history. The archive holds the medical achievement as shared human construction with decisive Black participation, not as a white institutional miracle with Black bodies appended at the edge. Segregation did not improve the science; it narrowed the record and hid the contributors.

## What was built

Blood banking turned transfusion from emergency improvisation into an organized medical system. That system depended on preservation techniques, donor recruitment, transport, typing, and hospital coordination—work in which Black medical personnel and Black communities played a major role.

## Why Black history matters here

The standard story often names the institution and the scientist while leaving out the segregated labor that made collection and supply possible. In the United States, blood programs were also shaped by racial policy, including separate handling of donations and the coercive framing of Black blood as medically distinct.

## The archive’s claim

This record belongs in Science & Invention because blood banking is a medical technology, not just a hospital service. Black participation was not symbolic; it was structural, and the failure to preserve that authorship is itself part of the history of the field.

## Sources

1. Charles R. Drew, 'Banked Blood,' in Charles Richard Drew, 'The 'Banked Blood' concept and its application,' Journal of the American Medical Association, 1940s medical literature; also his dissertation materials at Columbia University archives.
2. Thomas F. Baskett and Linda B. Villarosa, 'The Blood Bank and the Color Line,' Black medical-history scholarship; and contemporary reporting in the Pittsburgh Courier and Baltimore Afro-American on blood donation and segregation, 1940s.

## Related records

- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-plasma-preservation
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-transfusion
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/charles-r-drew
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/american-red-cross
- https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/paramedic-services-in-the-united-states

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Cite as: Black's Encyclopedia, "Blood Bank," revised July 22, 2026. https://www.blacksencyclopedia.com/record/blood-bank-04f3

Text under the Black's Record License: cite the record, keep attribution attached, cite the revision date.