| Summary: | Pediatrician Dr. Charles Francis Whitten was born on February 2, 1922 in Wilmington, Delaware. He graduated from Howard High School in 1940 and earned his B.S. degree in zoology from the University of Pennsylvania. Whitten studied medicine at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee and received his M.D. degree in 1945 at twenty-three. He was the first and only African American to head a department in a Detroit hospital in 1956. Whitten co-founded the African Medical Education Fund in 1960, and in 1969, he instituted Wayne State University's (WSU) Post Baccalaureate Enrichment Program. In 1971, Whitten founded the National Association for Sickle Cell Disease. Whitten became program director for the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center in 1973. In 2002, Whitten was named Michiganian of the Year, and in 2004, he became distinguished professor of pediatrics, emeritus at WSU. Whitten passed away on August 14, 2008 at the age of 86.
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