"Robert Tanner Freeman"(1846-1873)

Was the first African American dentist to receive a degree in the United States.He graduated

from the Harvard University Dental School in 1869.He and George Lewis Ruffin.(Law School) share the distinction of being the first African Americans to graduate from Harvard University.Robert was born in Washington,D.C. to former slaves from North Carolina,and as a young man was hired by a local dentist,Dr.Henry Bliss Noble.He began as a clerk and clerk and became a dental assistant.Dr.Noble encouraged him to pursue a career in dentistry as a way to help alleviate the sufferings of other blacks.Robert applied to,and was rejected by,two colleges before he was accepted,in 1867,as one of the sixteen members of the inaugural class at the newly formed Harvard Dental School.His fellows classmates included another African American,George Franklin Grant.Upon graduation in 1869 he returned to Washington D.C. to set up private practice in the same building as previous employer and mentor.He died four years later.His grandson Robert C. Weaver,became the first African-American to serve as a member of the Presidental cabinet.Lyndon Baines Johnson appointed him Secretary og Housing and Urban Development in 1966.The National Dental Association's Organization in Washington D.C. is named after Dr.Freeman-The Robert T.Freeman Dental Society.