The Black Medical Schools Remain the Prime Training Ground for Black Doctors

IN 1970 THE Association of American Medical Col? leges (AAMC), seeking to reverse a long history of racial discrimination, set a goal to have blacks repre? sent 12 percent of total medical school entrants, a percentage paralleling their presence in the United States population. That goal was never reached. Twenty years later African Americans entering medical schools represented less than 6 percent of all first-year students. And in terms of doctors in practice, blacks represented only 3 percent of the 587,000 doctors in the country. So, in 1991, the AAMC, whose members include 126 degree-granting institutions, set a new goal: Project 3000 by 2000. This program sig? naled that by the year 2000 the association intended to have 3,000 so-called underrepresented minorities ? called URMs ? entering medical schools each year. When Pro? ject 3000 by 2000 was launched, U.S. medical schools were enrolling 1,580 URMs. In other words, the goal is to virtu? ally double minority enrollment. African Americans would make up about 1,900 of the 3,000 minority enrollees sought by the year 2000. (Other groups included as URMs are Mexican Americans, Puerto Ricans, and American Indians. Asian Americans are not considered underrepresented.) Project 3000 by 2000 is a serious program, reaching down to college and high school levels, and the AAMC reports that it is working. By 1993 the number of URMs admitted to medical schools had soared to a record 1,863. Blacks, as a percentage of all students at medical schools, reached the 7.8 percent level. More black physicians were also being graduated. AAMC figures show that the number of blacks receiving medical degrees increased from 850 in the 19911992 year to 940 in the 1992-1993 year. The AAMC attributed the gains to a number of factors. For starters, the association's project to lift minority enrollments has