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Columbia Medical School Denies Charges of Racial and Social Discrimination

June 19, 1942
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A vigorous denial that there is racial discrimination in medical schools or insistence upon social qualifications was issued here today by Dr. Willard C. Rappleye, dean of the Columbia Medical School. The charge was made yesterday in Congress by Representative Samuel Dickstein.

“I know of a number of medical schools that have been discriminating against people of certain races,” Congressman Dickstein said. He accused the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as other medical schools, of barring students not socially acceptable to them.

In denying Dickstein’s charges, Dr. Rappleye stated that about fifty per cent of young men who wish to study medicine throughout the country are unable to enter schools simply because there is not enough room for them.

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