Biography

Born in Trinidad on December 10, 1895, Donowa earned his D.D.S. from Howard University and did further work at the Royal College of Dental Surgeons in Toronto and at the renowned Forsyth Clinic in Boston, affiliated with Harvard Medical School, where he also served as chief of x-ray. In 1929, Dr. Donowa joined the faculty at Howard University as the first full dean of the school's reorganized College of Dentistry. In 1931 Dr. Donowa resigned from his post at Howard and set up a private oral surgery practice in Harlem. In 1934 Dr. Donowa joined the Communist party. Following the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, Donowa helped collect medical supplies for the Ethiopians. When the Spanish Civil War broke out, he carried these activities over to the Aid for Spain Campaign. In 1937 Donowa volunteered to join the American Medical Bureau in Spain organized by Dr. Edward Barsky. He was issued a passport on July 20, 1937 and sailed the next day. Dr. Donowa arrived in Spain on August 16 and was slightly wounded the same day during a fascist aerial bombing of the border town of Port Bou. Appointed Head of Oral Surgery at the Villa Paz Hospital, Donowa served in Spain for almost eighteen months. In the United States his role in Spain was widely covered in the black and the mainstream press. Dr. Donowa returned to the United States on the SS President Harding on December 31, 1938. He resumed his work in Harlem and made many appearances on behalf of the Spanish Republic in the days before its final fall. In subsequent years he continued to be active in New York. He gained notice in 1945 at the forefront of a group of African-American dentists protesting against anti-Semitic quotas at dental schools. In the late 1950s or early 1960s Dr. Donowa retired from his practice and returned to Trinidad, where he died.

ALB Archival Materials

Images

Albin Ragner and Dr. Arnold Donowa about the President Harding in December 1938. (ALBA Collection).

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