List of African-American women in medicine explained
African-American women have been practicing medicine informally in the contexts of midwifery and herbalism for centuries. Those skilled as midwives, like Biddy Mason, worked both as slaves and as free women in their trades. Others, like Susie King Taylor and Ann Bradford Stokes, served as nurses in the Civil War. Formal training and recognition of African-American women began in 1858 when Sarah Mapps Douglass was the first black woman to graduate from a medical course of study at an American university.[1] Later, in 1864 Rebecca Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree. The first nursing graduate was Mary Mahoney in 1879. The first dentist, Ida Gray, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1890. It was not until 1916 that Ella P. Stewart became the first African-American woman to become a licensed pharmacist. Inez Prosser in 1933 became the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology. Two women, Jane Hinton and Alfreda Johnson Webb, in 1949, were the first to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine degree. Joyce Nichols, in 1970, became the first woman to become a physician's assistant.
This is an alphabetical list of African-American women who have made significant firsts and contributions to the field of medicine in their own centuries.
1800s
A
B
C
D
- Halle Tanner Dillon became the first woman licensed as a physician in Alabama.
- Sarah Mapps Douglass became the first woman to complete a medical course of study at an American university in 1858 when she graduated from the Ladies' Institute of the Pennsylvania Medical University.
- Juan Bennett Drummond, 1888 graduate of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, became the first African American woman doctor licensed in Massachusetts.[8]
E
- Matilda Evans in 1897 became the first African American woman to earn a medical license in South Carolina.[9]
F
- Sara Iredell Fleetwood graduated from the Freedmen's Hospital Nursing Training School in 1896.[10]
- Louise Celia Fleming in 1891 became the first African American woman to enroll in the Women's Medical College in Philadelphia.[11]
- Martha Minerva Franklin graduated from nursing school in 1897 and worked to improve racial equality in nursing.[12]
- Sarah Loguen Fraser in 1879 became the first woman and African American to graduate from the Syracuse College of Medicine and became the fourth African American woman to become a doctor.[13]
G
H
J
- Sarah Garland Boyd Jones in 1893 became the first woman physician licensed in Virginia.
- Sophia B. Jones was a Canadian-born American medical doctor, who founded the nursing program at Spelman College. She was the first black woman to graduate from the University of Michigan Medical School and the first black faculty member at Spelman.[16]
M
P
R
S
T
W
1900s
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
- Jessie G. Garnett in 1919 became the first woman to graduate from Tufts Dental School.
- Marilyn Hughes Gaston, in 1990 becomes the first black woman doctor appointed to the Health Resources and Services Administration's Bureau of Primary Health Care.
- Wilina Ione Gatson in 1960 became the first African American graduate of the University of Texas nursing school.
- Fannie Gaston-Johansson in 1998 earned full professorship and tenure at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, the first African American woman to earn that position.
- Helene Doris Gayle, in 1995 becomes the first woman and African-American appointed as Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US CDC.
- Florence S. Gaynor became the first African American woman to "head a major teaching hospital" in 1971.
- Mary Keys Gibson in 1907 became the first African American in the Southern United States to earn a nursing certificate.[54]
H
I
J
K
- Elizabeth Lipford Kent in 1955 became the first African American nurse to earn a doctorate in public health.
- Francis M. Kneeland established her own practice as a physician in Memphis, Tennessee in 1907.[62]
L
M
- Audrey Forbes Manley, in 1988, became the first African American woman to become the Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S.[66]
- Barbara Martin McArthur in 1976 created the first nurse epidemiology program in the US.
- Pearl McBroom developed new ways of observing changes in coronary blood vessel tissue.
- Ernest Mae McCarroll in 1946 became the first black physician to work at the Newark City Hospital.[67]
- Gertrude Elizabeth Curtis McPherson in 1904 became the first black woman to pass the New York State Board of Dentistry.
- Mary E. Merritt became the first African-American licensed nurse in Kentucky.[68]
- Marie Metoyer in 1951 became the first African American woman to graduate as a medical doctor from Cornell University.
- Jane Evelyn Mitchell, one of the first African American registered nurses in Delaware.[69]
- Mildred Mitchell-Bateman in 1962 became the first woman to head a state department of mental health.
N
- Helen E. Nash helped integrate St. Louis Children's Hospital and worked on reducing infant mortality.[70]
- Joyce Nichols became the first woman educated formally as a Physician Assistant in 1970.
- Eva M. Noles in 1940 became the first African American person to graduate from the E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital School of Nursing.
O
P
- Doreen P. Palmer was the first woman to head the gastroenterology department in a hospital.
- Thelma Patten Law in 1955 was the first African American woman to enter the Harris County Medical Society.[71]
- Margaret M. Patterson-Townsend in 1992 opened the first successful sleep disorder clinic owned and operated by an African American woman.
- Sarah Ewell Payton in 1962 became the first African American woman certified by the American Board of Radiology.
- Rose Marie Pegues-Perkins was one of the first African American x-ray technicians.
- Muriel Petioni in 1974 founded the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society for Women, professional organization for African American doctors.[72]
- Vivian Pinn in 1991 became the first woman appointed the director of the office of research on women's health at the National Institutes of Health.
- Elinor Powell was a World War II nurse working for the Army who defied anti-miscegenation laws.[73]
- Inez Prosser in 1933 became the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology.[74]
- Deborah Prothrow-Stith in 1987 became the youngest person and the first woman to serve as the Commissioner of Public Health in Massachusetts.[75]
R
S
T
V
W
- Valerie O. Walker in 1994 became the first African American woman to serve on the Missouri Board of Registration for the Healing Arts.
- Mary Fitzbutler Waring, a physician and clubwoman, served as the chair of the Department of Health and Hygiene for the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs (NACW).
- Alyce Faye Wattleton in 1978 became the first African American to serve as president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
- Alfreda Johnson Webb in 1949 became one of the first of two African American women to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine.
- Josie E. Wells in 1910 became the first African American woman teaching at Meharry Medical College.
- Frances Cress Welsing, psychiatrist who studied racism.[90]
- Doris Wethers, who graduated from Yale School of Medicine in 1952, was the third African American woman to graduate from the school.
- Emma Rochelle Wheeler, graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1905 and helped create Walden Hospital.[91]
- Ionia Rollin Whipper, graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1903 and in 1931, created the Ionia R. Whipper Home for Unwed Mothers.[92]
- Betty Smith Williams in 1971 co-founded the National Black Nurses Association.[93]
- Geraldine Pittman Woods, in 1964 became the first African-American woman appointed to the National Advisory General Medical Services Council.
- Minnie D. Woodward in 1913 was the first African American to earn a certificate of registration as a trained nurse in Tennessee.
- Jane C. Wright, in 1967 became the Associate Dean and Professor of Surgery at New York Medical College.
Y
- N. Louise Young was the first African American woman practicing medicine in Maryland, beginning in 1933.
2000s
A
B
D
E
F
G
H
- Patrice Harris in 2018 became the first African American president elected to the American Medical Association.
- Sharon Henry in 2000 became the first African American woman to become a fellow in the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma.
J
- Thea L. James is the Associate Professor, Associate Chief Medical Officer, and Vice President of the Mission at the Boston Medical Center.
- Michele Johnson, became the first woman and African American promoted to a full professorship of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging and of Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine in 2014.[99]
- Paula A. Johnson is the first African-American president of Wellesley College, chairwoman of the Boston Public Health Commission, former professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
O
- Elizabeth O. Ofili in 2000 became the first woman to serve as president of the Association of Black Cardiologists.[100]
R
S
- Jeannette E. South-Paul in 2001 became the first African American to serve as permanent department chair at the University of Pittsburgh department of family medicine.[102]
W
References
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Notes and References
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- “The New Doctors” Wilmington Messenger, May 20, 1894, p. 1
- Book: Moldow, Gloria. Black Women in America: Science Health and Medicine. Facts on File, Inc.. 1997. 0816034249. Hines. Darlene Clark. New York. 45. Brown, Mary Louise.
- Horner. J. Richey. June 1910. Obituaries. The Journal of the American Institute of Homoeophathy. II. 409.
- Web site: Celebrating 10 African-American medical pioneers. Haskins. Julia. 25 February 2019. AAMC. en. 2020-05-05.
- Web site: Rebecca J. Cole. Changing the Face of Medicine. 2020-05-05.
- Web site: Juan Bennett Drummond was first African American woman doctor in Massachusetts. 15 March 2020. South Coast Today. en. 2020-05-07.
- Web site: Matilda Arabella Evans. Changing the Face of Medicine. 2020-05-05.
- Book: Harley, Sharon. Black Women in America: Science Health and Medicine. Facts on File, Inc.. 1997. 0816034249. Hine. Darlene Clark. New York. 72–73. Fleetwood, Sara Iredell.
- Web site: Louise Celia "Lulu" Fleming (1862-1899) •. Singer. Hazel. 2014-02-10. Black Past. en-US. 2020-06-01.
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- Web site: Sarah Loguen Fraser (1850-1933). Staten. Candace. 2014-03-14. Black Past. en-US. 2020-05-11.
- Book: C., Atwater, Edward. Women medical doctors in the United States before the Civil War : a biographical dictionary. 9781580465717. Rochester, NY. 945359277. 2016.
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- Book: Jenkins, Earnestine. Black Women in America: Science Health and Medicine. Facts on File, Inc.. 1997. 0816034249. Hine. Darlene Clark. New York. 94–95. Kneeland, Francis M..
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