Augustus Lushington
*Augustus Lushington was born on this date in 1869. He was a Black Veterinarian.
From Trinidad, Augustus Nathaniel Lushington, a young child, his paternal grandfather from the Congo, was brought to Trinidad. As a slave, he worked at the sugar plantation on the island, and his father, William, worked as a butcher, who raised produce and did farm work.
Young Lushington attended a teacher-training school and taught in Trinidadian classrooms for several years. He left for Venezuela, where he worked as a clerk in La Guayra for a British-owned railroad. After three years, Lushington returned to Trinidad but found that opportunities remained insufficient on the island.
Finally, in 1889, he set off for Binghamton, New York. In 1890 he met his wife, Elizabeth Gavino Hubert, from Antigua. His college education started after his marriage. 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 when 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.) from the University of Pennsylvania in 1897. When students walk into the University of Pennsylvania, they see a portrait of Augustus Lushington at the main entrance of the main building.
He practiced for two years in Philadelphia, PA, then was a Veterinary Sanitation and Hygiene instructor 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 Lynchburg Chamber of Commerce member. He was known for his skillful, high-class scientific service. Augustus Lushington died on February 12, 1939.
Reference:
Who's Who in Colored America; a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of Negro Descent in the United States. 1927, Joseph J. Boris, editor. (New York, NY: Who's Who in Colored America Corporation), 1927. Vol.1 p. 126.
