Night Doctors

Night Doctors—also called Night Riders, Night Witches, Ku Klux Doctors, or Student Doctors—were figures in African American folklore based on real practices in the 18th and 19th centuries. The term referred to doctors and medical students who obtained Black bodies through illegal or unethical means for dissection and study.

During cadaver shortages, Southern medical schools commonly used the bodies of African Americans, acquired through grave robbing or purchased from slave owners. Some physicians, known as Needle Men or Black Bottle Men, were rumored to poison Black patients to secure cadavers. For enslaved people, death was viewed as a release, while slaveholders often believed they retained ownership of the body.

The rise of anatomical instruction increased demand for bodies. Laws against grave robbing were weakly enforced, and penalties were minor. African Americans, immigrants, and the poor were most frequently targeted. Grave robbing led to several riots, including the New York Doctors’ Riot of 1788. In response, legislation like the 1831 Massachusetts Anatomy Act and Britain’s Anatomy Act of 1832 authorized the use of unclaimed remains, curbing illegal practices.

The Medical College of Georgia, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Charity Hospital in New Orleans disproportionately used African American bodies. In 1989, over 9,000 bones were uncovered at the Medical College of Georgia, believed to belong largely to Black and working-class individuals. Two-thirds of cadavers at Johns Hopkins were African American. Charity Hospital was associated with racist medical practices.

African Americans were also commonly used for live surgical demonstrations. These practices contributed to long-term mistrust of the medical system. Unethical experimentation continued into the 20th century, including the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the unauthorized use of Henrietta Lacks’ cells. Night Doctor legends preserved communal memory of these abuses.