Dr. William Sinkler, M.D.		Dr. Rudolph Miller, M.D.

History of SMMA

The Sinkler Miller Medical Association (SMMA) was formed in 1968 by physicians located in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties who saw the need to unite and form a professional medical association. Their objectives included the improvement of the quality of health care in the community, advancement of the art as well as the science of medicine, and the maintenance of a high standard of medical ethics. The association was named after two physicians who exemplified these objectives and were deeply committed to the delivery of quality health care to the Black community.

Dr. William Sinkler was the first Chief of Surgery and Medical Director of the Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. He was one of the first black Diplomates of the American Board of Surgery and trained surgeons throughout the world.

Dr. Rudolph Miller, a Diplomate of the American Board of Urology, was one of the black pioneers among urologists practicing in the Bay Area and was very active in community affairs.

Presently, the Sinkler Miller Medical Association has 182 members. As a local branch of both the National Medical Association and the State of California Golden State Medical Association, Sinkler Miller maintains its commitment towards the betterment of the field of health, education and welfare.

The Sinkler Miller Medical Association was organized in 1968 in Oakland as the East Bay component chapter of the National Medical and Golden State Medical Associations by nearly twenty five African-American physicians who were mostly graduates of either the Howard University College of Medicine or Meharry Medical College. The impetus for its formation was the coalescence of the social and political agitation spawned by the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and 1960s and a heightened awareness of the need and opportunities for involvement in medical affairs by local black physicians.

The chapter was jointly named for Drs. William H. Sinkler and Rudolph H. Miller as a compromise proposed by Dr. Clarence S. Avery between those favoring either nominee. Dr. Sinkler was born December 24, 1906 in Summerville, South Carolina and received his A.B. degree from Lincoln University, Pennsylvania in 1928 and M.D. from Howard University in 1932. After graduation he spent his professional career in St. Louis, beginning private surgical practice after four years as an intern and resident in surgery at the St. Louis City Hospital No.2. He became a consultant in thoracic surgery to the Koch Hospital in 1938 and was appointed Medical Director and Assistant Director of Surgery at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in 1941 and Director of Surgery in 1956. One of the early black diplomates of the American Board of Surgery (1947) and Fellows of the American College of Surgeons (1948) and Interna­tional College of Surgeons (1950),' he was the first black surgeon appointed to the Washington University surgical faculty, Barnes Hospital, The Jewish Hospital and the Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital. His sudden death in 1960 from a heart attack was a major loss for minority medical education because "it has been stated that during his life span he influenced in some manner one-third or more of the black physicians receiving postgraduate medical training. Probably no other single person, outside the medical schools of Howard and Meharry, magnetized and guided so many black physicians during twenty-odd years of service (1941-1960) at the Homer G. Phillips Hospital." Several of the founding members of Sinkler Miller were former residents of Dr. Sinkler.

Rudolph H. Miller, M.D., the first black Bay Area urologist, was born February 24, 1923 in Washington, D.C., and entered Howard University in 1940 after graduating from Dunbar High School. In December 1943 he was selected by the U.S. Army and Howard to continue his medical education while a member of the Armed Forces. He graduated from Howard's College of Medicine in 1947, interned for one year at Harlem Hospital for training in urology under Dr. R. Frank Jones. In 1952, after completing his residency, Dr. Miller entered the U.S. Navy and was stationed at Oak Knoll Hospital in Oakland. During his tour of duty he became enamored of Oakland and the Bay Area, and returned in 1955 after a year in private practice in Washington with Dr. Jones. He immediately became active in community affairs and practiced in several East Bay and San Francisco hospitals. At the time of his death in June 1965, he was president of the Northern California Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Association and the Howard University Bay Area alumni Association and Chairman of the Men of Tomorrow's Committee on de facto Segregation in the Oakland School System.