08/02/2023
Wow
Augustus Lushington was born on this date in 1869. He was an Black Veterinarian.
From Trinidad, Augustus Nathaniel Lushington As a young child his paternal grandfather from DR Congo, was brought to Trinidad as a slave to work at the sugar plantation on the island, and his father, William, worked as a butcher, who raised produce for sale at market and did farm work. Young Lushington went to teacher-training school and worked at Trinidadian classrooms for several years as a teacher and principal. He left for Venezuela, where he worked as a clerk in the town of La Guayra for a British-owned railroad. After three years, Lushington went back to Trinidad but found that opportunities were insufficient in the island.
Finally, in 1889, he set off for the United States, for Binghamton, New York. In 1890 he met his wife Elizabeth Gavino Hubert. His college education started when he married his wife Elizabeth Hubert from Antigua. Her West Indian friends helped Augustus enroll in Cornell University to study Agriculture. He graduated with a degree in Agriculture in 1894. Since there was no work for him at the time he left the West Indies to attend the University of Pennsylvania veterinary school finishing the program in three years. Lushington became the first Black man to earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.). He earned his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. When students walk into the University of Pennsylvania the first thing they see is a portrait of Augustus Lushington in the main entrance of the main building.
He practiced two years in Philadelphia, PA then was an instructor in Veterinary Sanitation and Hygiene at Bell Mead Industrial and Agricultural College at Rock Castle, Virginia. Later, he practiced in Lynchburg, Virginia. Lushington was a statistical reporter to the Bureau of Animal Industry, the Federal Department of Agriculture, and a member of the Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce. He was known for the skillful, high-class scientific service. Augustus Lushington died on February 12, 1939.
