Throughout the month of February 2024, ACPHS's Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team will help us recognize the contributions of various Black health care leaders. Follow along on our social media channels and in our weekly Campus Connections enews. Developed by first-year DEI work study students, Angelina Reish, pharmacy, and Tobias LaFountain, microbiology.
James Gardner was born in Albany, NY, in 1864 to William and his wife Elizabeth Gardiner. James’ father was a barber and very active in fighting for the equal rights of Black Americans. Their family lived on Second Street in Arbor Hill for several decades.
He was a member of the Black Republicans after the war and part of the group of men that influenced the school board to desegregate the schools of Albany in the early 1870s. He also attended several New York State Colored Conventions.
By the 1850s, he became the vice president of the Albany Vigilance Committee, where he financed Albany’s Underground Railroad, which helped fugitive slaves escape from the South. Elizabeth was a member of the Female Lundy Society, a charitable organization formed in the 1830s by the Black women in Albany that survived until at least the early 1900s.
Gardner graduated from the Albany College of Pharmacy in 1888 when it was co-located with Albany Medical College on Eagle St. between Lancaster and Jay Streets. Gardner wrote his graduation thesis about “Percolation” where he won $20 for best thesis.
He was married that same year to Caroline Deyo. After graduation, James and his wife lived in the 11th ward in Albany per the 1892 Census. Additionally in the Census he was listed with a “b” signifying he was Black, and his profession was labeled as “Druggist.”
Gardner worked for the drugstore owned by Clement & Rice at the corner of State and Eagle Streets, as well as for Thomas Pennington at his drugstore in Saratoga Springs, being the only Black druggist in the city at that time.
For more information about Gardner: James Gardner: The first African American Graduate of the Albany College of Pharmacy – Friends of Albany History (wordpress.com)