Smith, James McCune (1813–1865)

US doctor. He devoted his life to the welfare of black Americans and to insisting on their moral and physical equality with whites. A prolific writer, he opposed the American Colonization Society's plan to repatriate black Americans and he was active in the Underground Railroad.

He was born in New York City. The son of a slave freed by the laws of New York, he got his medical degree from the University of Glasgow, Scotland (1837) and practiced briefly in Paris before returning to New York. He worked 20 years on the medical staff of the Free Negro Orphan Asylum in New York.