One of my best literary friends is crime investigator author Dan
Moldea. Often interviewed on national television, Moldea is the author
of The Hoffa Wars. The Killing of Robert F. Kennedy, and Evidence
Dismissed: The Inside Story of the Police Investigation of O.J.
Simpson. When examining a mysterious case in which a well known person
has died, Moldea told me his first objective is to get to the basic
facts – review the public record, examine the physical evidence, and
talk to all possible sources and witnesses.
This is something historian Spencie Love sets out to do in One
Blood: The Death and Resurrection of Charles R. Drew, which is a
fascinating account of the 1950 tragic automobile accident which
claimed the life of the outstanding medical surgeon and Black leader.
In 1950, Charles Drew was the chairman of Howard University’s
Medical School Surgery Department and chief surgeon at Freedmen’s
Hospital (now Howard University Hospital). During World War II, he was
responsible for pioneering scientific research in blood plasma and
blood banking. He was also outspoken about segregated medical practices
in the United States especially policies that initially excluded Black
blood from American Red Cross blood banks, and later segregated Black
and White blood.
As a result of his achievements in the medical field. Drew’s death –
which many people erroneously believe was caused by denial of medical
services – encouraged various beliefs which upheld the painful reminder
of segregation within the Black community. Rumors circulated following
the Drew accident reflecting the state of race relations in the United
States at the time and the perceived hostility against Black people in
the South.
One Blood is not a biography of Charles Drew. Instead, it is an
examination of how rumors and the opinions of people help determine
history.
Love’s approach to her material is based on new research methods.
She aims to show how “there are different kinds of historical truth,”
and that the history people pass on orally – a group’s legends – is an
important clue not only to how they feel and think about their past,
but also to the very substance of that past. History, according to
Love, is derived from people’s memories.
How and why a Charles Drew legend developed is a major part of
Love’s research. Her book encourages one to reread Patricia A. Turner’s
I Heard It Through The Grapevine, which examines how rumors circulate
within African American culture. I am certain that if I was on the
Howard campus back in 1950 and learned about the tragic death of Drew,
I would have been shocked and wondering if the news reports were
accurate. I probably would have held on to my own beliefs, regardless
of the facts, and would have passed on a few rumors myself. In time,
however, rumors help shape the legends we believe.
