Clarence Sumner Greene, Sr. was the first African American neurosurgeon certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery.

Brain Bytes showcase essential facts about neuroscience. Clarence Summer Greene, Sr. became the first African American neurosurgeon certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1953. Greene became interested in neurosurgery in 1927 after finishing dental school. After completing a two-year premedical program at Harvard University and interning at Cleveland City Hospital, he enrolled in the Howard University College of Medicine, earning his M.D. in 1936.

Following a residency at Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia, Greene became an assistant resident at Freedmen’s Hospital (now Howard University Hospital) in Washington, D.C. He was later appointed as an assistant professor of surgery at Howard University School of Medicine in 1943.

 A year after his unexpected death in 1957, the post-operative recovery and intensive care unit he instituted was named after him.

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