The Future is Now! African Americans in DentistryCelebrate the rich heritage of African Americans in dentistry through one of the museum’s traveling exhibitions. Discover key individuals, institutions, and organizations that reshaped the social and political landscape of oral health care in the United States. To the left: Dr. Robert Tanner Freeman, born in Washington D.C., first African American to receive a dental degree, and member of the inaugural class of the Harvard Dental College, 1867. Image courtesy of the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University.