The Journal of the National Medical Association 100 years ago: a new voice of and for African American physicians.

Volume 1 of the Journal of the National Medical Association (JNMA), published quarterly during 1909, included a good deal of space devoted to 2 key concerns: (1) building and unifying black health professionals in medicine, surgery, dentistry, and pharmacy; and (2) providing a voice for these African American health professionals to the often-hostile and racist larger world of medicine. The Journal's editor, Charles Victor Roman, and associate editor, John A. Kenney, were well suited to the task. They promoted membership in the National Medical Association (NMA), attendance at NMA annual meetings, and cooperation among the health professions. They also used the pages of the JNMA to firmly respond to the negative articles and biased, even hateful, attitudes expressed by white medical and lay people. The JNMA has continued to speak for the black medical profession over the subsequent 100 years.