Herman A. Barnett

In 1997 The University of Texas Medical Branch established a distinguished professorship award in his name.

In 1950 he received the Charles A. Pfizer Award. In 1969 he received the Outstanding Citizenship Award from the Omega Psi Phi fraternity. In 1971 he received the Huston-Tillotson Award from the Houston Chapter of the Huston-Tillotson Alumni Association. On August 13, 1973 (after his death) he was awarded the 28th Distinguished Service Medal of the National Medical Association.

Dr. Barnett died on May 27, 1973 in the crash of his private twin-engine airplane in Wichita, Kansas. Barnett was on his way to an air show sponsored by the Negro Airmen's International Convention when his plane was caught in unexpected crosswinds and went down.

In 1972 he was elected to the Board of Education of the Houston Independent School District. In January 1973 he became president of this board, becoming the first African American to do so.

In 1968, appointed by John Connally, Dr. Barnett became the first African-American to serve on the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners.

Between 1968 and 1971 Dr. Barnett was a member of the National Medical Association Board of Trustees.

In 1968 Barnett co-founded the Bronze Eagles Flying Club, an African-American flying club which holds an annual exhibition every Memorial Day called Sky Hook. Upon his death, Dr. Barnett was Vice president of the club.

Between 1966 and 1968 Dr. Barnett completed a second residency in anesthesiology at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston. He served as chief of surgery at the St. Elizabeth's Hospital and the Riverside General Hospital. He was an associate attending surgeon at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and the Galveston County Memorial Hospital in La Marque; also an attending surgeon at the Herman and St. Joseph's Hospitals in Houston as well as an attending anesthesiologist at St. Joseph's. At the Time of his death he was chief of surgery at the Lockwood Hospital in Houston.

Barnett was accepted to the University of Chicago, Meharry, and UTMB, becoming the first black student accepted to the school. There was a stipulation to the acceptance though, technically Barnett would be a student at Texas State University for Negroes (TSUN), but would attend UTMB at Galveston under a contract between the schools. The contract program was stopped after the Veterans Administration (Barnett's tuition was covered by the GI Bill) refused to recognize the contract system and Barnett's attorney threatened legal action. Thus, on October 12, 1950, Barnett became enrolled as a regular student of UTMB. In the fall of 1948 Barnett began his classes at UTMB. When attending class Barnett was forced to sit outside the classroom, but according to Barnett there were no major negative acts against him, saying in a letter to James Morton, the president of the Austin NAACP “my every resource will be taxed to find even one unfavorable incident”. In 1953 Barnett completed the four-year degree program of the University of Texas School of Medicine, becoming the first black graduate from the school.

After leaving the military, Herman Barnett attended Samuel Huston College in Austin Texas, which he received his baccalaureate degree from with high honors in 1948. To continue his education he applied for medical school at the University of Chicago and Meharry Medical College, as well as the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, which was then a white-only school. Prior to his application, on April 27, 1949, Barnett participated in a protest march which covered both the University of Texas campus as well as the state legislature.

Barnett's career as a pilot ended with the war, before he ever saw combat, being discharged in 1946.

In 1944 Herman Barnett enlisted in the military at Fort Sam Houston.

Due to his high exam scores he was accepted into training at the Tuskegee Institute, the world's only training program exclusively for black pilots. As a Tuskegee Airman, Barnett flew in the 332nd fighter group.

Dr. Herman Aladdin Barnett, lll (January 22, 1926 – May 27, 1973) was an African-American fighter pilot, surgeon and anesthesiologist. He became the first African-American graduate from the University of Texas Medical School in 1953.

Herman Barnett was born in Austin, Texas on January 22, 1926. He attended Grant Elementary School in San Antonio, Kealing Junior High, and Anderson High School in Austin. He graduated from Phyllis Wheatley High School in Austin in 1943.