Julian H. Lewis

Julian Herman Lewis (May 26, 1891 – March 6, 1989) was an American pathologist. The son of a freed slave, Lewis became the first African-American associate professor at the University of Chicago in 1922. His research interests included racial differences in relation to medicine and immunology. He earned a Guggenheim Fellowship for research in immunology in 1926.

Lewis's research on race culminated in the 1942 publication of The Biology of the Negro, a lengthy text summarizing the scientific literature on the demographic, anatomical, physiological and biochemical characteristics of the black population. While Lewis was deeply interested in biological differences between the races, he argued against the viewpoint that black people were biologically inferior. The book, though well reviewed, sold poorly, and Lewis published no further works after 1943.

Early life and education Lewis was born on May 26, 1891, in Shawneetown, Illinois, to John Calhoun Lewis, a freed slave, and Cordelia O. Scott Lewis. Both of Lewis's parents were schoolteachers.