Alexander Augusta

Alexander Thomas Augusta (1825-1890) was born in Norfolk, Virginia, to free African American parents. Augusta spent his younger years secretly learning to read and write in the hopes of one day becoming a doctor. This pursuit would not come easy in a time when Virginia law denied education to black citizens. His ambition resulted in him leaving the United States after being denied admission to the American education system. The now-married Augusta ventured to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where he had the opportunity to attend medical school at Trinity College, acquiring his Bachelor of Medicine in 1856. While in Toronto, Augusta was appointed head of the Toronto City Hospital.

In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation went into effect, resulting in the freedom of slaves within Confederate-controlled states and requesting the enlistment of African Americans into the Union army. At 38 years old, Augusta returned to the United States and became the first of eight black officers in the Union army. He held the rank of Major and was appointed head surgeon within the 7th U.S. Colored Infantry. While in the Army, Augusta faced many racial prejudices, such as unfair wages, disrespectful colleagues, and was mobbed for wearing his officer's uniform. Each time Augusta faced discrimination, he would write letters to newspapers and government officials in the hopes of achieving change. Augusta's most significant letter was written in 1864, following his forceful removal from a Washington streetcar after refusing to give up his seat in the "whites only" section. The year following the incident, Congress desegregated all the streetcars in the nation's capital. Augusta then became a lieutenant colonel, the highest-ranking black officer in the U.S. military for the time.

In 1866 Augusta left the Army for the Lincoln Hospital in Savannah, Georgia. He then started his own practice in Washington, D.C. He would also become the first black medical professor at the newly formed Medical College of Howard University and remained there until 1877.

Alexander T. Augusta died in 1890 and is the first black officer to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.