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Phenomenal Women

Rebecca Lee (Crumpler)

This fabulous fearless female entered the New England Female Medical College in 1860, at 29 yrs old. She completed a 17-week course to earn her M.D. degree making her the only African-American woman to graduate from that college. She earned her medical license in 1864. She became the 1st African-American Physician in the United States! She practiced in Richmond VA at the end of the Civil War.

Mary Susan Moore

Dr. Mary Susan Moore was born 1865 in Chatham County, North Carolina. She earned her Doctorate of Medicine in 1898 from Meharry Medical Department of Central Tennessee College (now Meharry Medical College). Dr. Moore was the first Black female physician to practice medicine in Texas. In 1903, she and her husband, Dr. James D. Moore, opened a forty-bed hospital, Hubbard Sanitarium, in Galveston to serve the health needs of Black people. For four years Dr. Moore and her husband fought opposition from residents and local government. In 1907, the city of Galveston repealed the ordinance prohibiting the operation of Hubbard Sanitarium. Dr. Moore and her husband maintained the hospital until about 1925. Dr. Mary Susan Moore died August 22, 1965.

Rebecca J. Cole

She was the 1st African-American graduate of the Female Medical College of PA in 1867, and the 2nd fabulous fearless African-American female physician to graduate medical school. She practiced for half a century in PA.

Susan McKinney Steward

This fabulous fearless female was the 1st black woman to graduate from a New York State medical school. After graduating from New York Medical College, she practiced in Brooklyn for 20 years. In 1873, she became the 1st black female doctor to be formally certified.

May Edward Chinn

This fabulous fearless female was the first black woman to intern at Harlem Hospital and in 1926, she became the first black woman to graduate from the University of Bellvue Medical Center.

Jane Cook Wright

This fabulous fearless female received her medial degree from New Medical College in 1945. She became America’s first African-American dean of a major medical school, New York Medical College in 1967.

Helen Octavia Dickens

This fabulous fearless female completed her training at University of Illinois Medical School. She completed her residency in OBGYN in 1946. Then she became the 1st African-American female physician to be admitted into the America College of Surgeons.

Dorothy Lavinia Brown

This fabulous fearless female was educated at Bennett College and Meharry Medical College. In 1948, she was the first African-American woman appointed to a general surgery residency. She completed her residency in general surgery at George Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, TN.

Edith Irby Jones

This fabulous fearless female completed college at Knoxville College in Knoxville, Tennessee and then went on to medical school at University of Arkansas Medical School, making her the first African-American to attend and to graduate from U of Ark Medical School. She moved to Houston, Texas, in 1959, where she became the first black woman intern at Baylor College of Medicine Affiliated Hospital. The hospital segregated her and limited her patient rosters. She completed the last three months of her residency at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington DC. She was among several other black physicians who founded Mercy Hospital and one of twelve doctors who owned and developed Park Plaza Hospital. In 1985, she was elected the first female president of the National Medical Association (NMA). She is also the only female founding member of the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC).

Alexia Irene Canada

This fabulous fearless female received her medical education at the University of Michigan. She was the first African-American neurosurgeon in the United States. She was certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1984.

Patricia Bath

This fabulous fearless female graduated from Howard University in 1968. She completed training in ophthalmology and corneal transplant at NYU and Columbia. In 1988, she became the first African-American female physician to patent a medical intervention with the Cataract Laserphaco Probe.

Joycelyn Elder

graduated from Philander Smith in 1952. In 1956, she entered the University of Arkansas Medical School on the G.I. Bill. She completed training in pediatric endocrinology. In January 1993, President-elect Clinton nominated this fabulous fearless female to the post of U.S. surgeon general, tapping her as the second African-American for a Cabinet-level position and the 1st African-American Surgeon General.

Mae Carol Jemison

This fabulous fearless female graduated from Stanford in 1977 and obtained her MD in 1971, from Cornell. She went on to become the first African-American woman to travel in space when she went into orbit aboard the Sace Shuttle Endeavor.

Regina Benjamin

Earned her BS in chemistry from Xavier University, MD degree from the University of Alabama, and an MBA from Tulane University. She attended Morehouse School of Medicine and completed her family medicine residency in Macon, GA. In 2002, she became President of the Medical Association State of Alabama, making her the first African-American female president of a State Medical Society in the United States. The fabulous fearless female is the 18th Surgeon General of the United States.

Connie Yerood Conner

This fabulous fearless female became the 1st African-American to staff at the Texas Department of Health.