In 1989, Washingtonian published what might be the most popular article in its history. “Like Something the Lord Made,” by Katie McCabe, tells of Vivien Thomas, an African American lab assistant to white surgeon Alfred Blalock from the 1930s to the ’60s. Thomas hadn’t gone to college, let alone medical school, but through their pioneering … Continue reading The Remarkable Story of Vivien Thomas, the Black Man Who Helped Invent Heart Surgery