Dr. Alvin Crawford, the first Black graduate of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Medicine, returned to Memphis Monday, Feb. 26, to visit with students, present research and sign his recently published autobiography.

In “The Bone Doctor’s Concerto: Music, Surgery, and the Pieces in Between,” Crawford, 84, shares details of a prolific life lived passionately at the intersection of music and medicine. 

“I aggressively pursued any and every thing I’ve ever wanted to do,” said Crawford, who grew up in Orange Mound, the nation’s first neighborhood built by and for Black Americans. 

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After graduating from Melrose High School, he earned his undergraduate degree in chemistry and biochemistry from the historically Black Tennessee State University in 1960. 

Crawford had planned to become a studio musician and played in jazz bands across the segregated South, but during his sophomore year, he became interested in pursuing medicine.

He made history by becoming the first Black student to enroll in and graduate from UTHSC’s College of Medicine. While he was up for the academic challenge, Crawford said his time in medical school was socially and emotionally difficult because of his experiences with racism. 

A member of the Class of 1964, Crawford graduated the same year Congress passed the Civil Rights Act then embarked on a groundbreaking medical career lasting six decades. 

He traveled the world as a surgeon for the Navy, became the first Black member of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America and first Black president of the Scoliosis Research Society. He also founded the eponymous Crawford Spine Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. 

“I worked as hard as I could to do the best that I could to help people — especially for people who were underserved and didn’t have access to the treatment,” he said. “I thought that was really important.” 

Crawford is a renowned expert in spinal deformities and neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to form in the brain, spinal cord and nerves. He’s also a professor emeritus of pediatrics and orthopedic surgery at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

In addition to his book signing at UTHSC Monday, Crawford gave a research presentation as part of a lecture series that brings prominent researchers to campus to present on pressing research topics, share ideas and foster collaboration.

“Dr. Alvin Crawford has given us all an incredible gift — his life story and a glimpse inside what has made him the surgeon, teacher, and man he is,” said Brigitte Grant, UTHSC vice chancellor for advancement. “From his early years and the life lessons his family instilled to the challenges, perseverance and determination he exhibited along with the professional and personal achievements and most notably the many, many lives he has touched — this is a story each of us can learn from and take into our personal lives.” 

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Despite the racism he endured as the only Black student in his class during medical college, Crawford today has a strong relationship with UTHSC. Supporting young people with an interest in medicine is dear to him, and he and his wife established the Alvin H. and Alva J. Crawford Endowed Medical Scholarship to support students at his alma mater. 

Crawford also founded Black Men in Medicine, a Cincinnati-based mentoring organization aimed at increasing awareness of the need for Black men in the field. 

“There are a lot of African American kids who have never been seen by an African American physician,” he said. “I’ve collected staff to mentor these kids through something like gross anatomy, which I consider to be one of the most arduous courses in your first year of medicine. There are very heavy academics in the first year of medicine, and I want to be there for them.” 

Crawford’s visit to Memphis Monday also included a visit to his earlier alma mater, Melrose High School, and a stop at White Station High where he spent time with the biology class of another UTHSC alumnus, Dr. Chikezie Madu. 

“I would like my students to see that somebody from such a humble background in Memphis could overcome so many challenges to get to where he is right now,” said Madu, who’s also an associate professor at UTHSC. 

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And when Crawford, who’s now retired from surgery, wraps up his Memphis visit and returns to Cincinnati, he’ll again focus on his other other love: music. 

He plays classical clarinet in Cincinnati’s Queen City Orchestra and in several bands, and teaches jazz history at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.

“It’s my labor of love,” he said.