List of African-American women in medicine facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

African-American women have a long and important history in medicine. For hundreds of years, they helped people informally as midwives and by using herbal remedies. Some, like Biddy Mason, were skilled midwives, working both as enslaved and free women. Others, such as Susie King Taylor and Ann Bradford Stokes, served as nurses during the American Civil War.

Formal medical training and recognition for African-American women began in the mid-1800s. In 1858, Sarah Mapps Douglass was the first Black woman to finish a medical course at an American university. A few years later, in 1864, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree. The first nursing graduate was Mary Eliza Mahoney in 1879. Then, in 1890, Ida Gray became the first African-American woman to graduate as a dentist from the University of Michigan. It took until 1916 for Ella P. Stewart to become the first African-American woman to be a licensed pharmacist. Later, in 1933, Inez Beverly Prosser was the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology. In 1949, Jane Hinton and Alfreda Johnson Webb were the first two to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine degree. More recently, in 1970, Joyce Nichols became the first woman to become a physician's assistant.

This article shares an alphabetical list of some African-American women who made important "firsts" and great contributions to medicine over the centuries.

1800s: Pioneers in Medicine

Susie Baker, later Susie King Taylor, a Civil War nurse.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler: In 1864, she was the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
Rebecca J. Cole: In 1867, she became the second African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.

Sarah Mapps Douglass: She was the first woman to complete a medical course at an American university in 1858.
Halle Tanner Dillon: She became the first woman licensed as a doctor in Alabama.

Martha Minerva Franklin: She graduated from nursing school in 1897 and worked hard to improve fairness for all nurses.
Sarah Loguen Fraser: In 1879, she was the first woman and African American to graduate from Syracuse College of Medicine.

Ida Gray: She became the first African-American woman to become a dentist in 1890.
Eliza Ann Grier: In 1897, she was the first African-American woman to practice medicine in Georgia.

Mary Mahoney: She was the first African-American to graduate from nursing training in 1879.
Biddy Mason: As an enslaved woman, she worked as a midwife. Later, she opened a day care and nursery in Los Angeles.
Alice Woodby McKane: She started the first nurses training school in Georgia in 1893.

Susan Smith McKinney Steward: In 1870, she became the third African-American woman to become a doctor.
Ann Bradford Stokes: In 1863, she joined the United States Navy as a ship's nurse.

Susie King Taylor: She was the first African-American to serve as a U.S. Army Nurse in the American Civil War.

1900s: Breaking More Barriers

25th Station Hospital Unit, U.S. Army Black Nurses In Liberia during WWII.

25th Station Hospital Unit: This all African-American unit was the first Black medical unit sent overseas during World War II.

Clara Adams-Ender: In 1967, she was the first woman to receive the U.S. Army's Expert Field Medical Badge.

Patricia Era Bath: She was the first African-American to complete a residency in ophthalmology (eye care).
Goldie D. Brangman-Dumpson: She was part of the surgical team that saved Martin Luther King Jr. in 1958 at Harlem Hospital.
Dorothy Lavinia Brown: In 1948, she became the first African-American woman to work in general surgery residency in the Southern United States.

Alexa Canady: She is the first African-American woman to become a neurosurgeon, specializing in children's brain surgery.
May Edward Chinn: In 1926, she became the first African-American woman to have an internship at Harlem Hospital.
Donna Christian-Christensen: In 1997, she became the first woman doctor and first African-American doctor to serve in the United States Congress.
Mamie Phipps Clark: She was a psychologist known for her research on Black children and education.

Helen O. Dickens: In 1950, she was the first African-American woman to join the American College of Surgeons.
Lillian Singleton Dove: She may have been one of the first African-American women surgeons, graduating in 1917.

Lena F. Edwards: A physician who helped low-income and migrant workers. In 1964, she was the first African-American woman to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Joycelyn Elders: In 1993, she was the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States.

Angelina Dorothea Ferguson: A pediatrician known for her work with sickle cell anemia.
Justina Laurena Carter Ford: In 1902, she became the first African-American woman to earn a medical license in Colorado.

Marilyn Hughes Gaston: In 1990, she became the first Black woman doctor appointed to a high position in the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Helene Doris Gayle: In 1995, she was the first woman and African-American appointed as Director of the National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention at the US CDC.

Beatrix McCleary Hamburg: In 1948, she became the first African-American woman to graduate from the Yale School of Medicine.
Jane Hinton: In 1949, she was one of the first two African-American women to become a doctor of veterinary medicine.

Anna Louise James: In 1908, she was the first Black woman to become a licensed pharmacist in Connecticut.
Mildred Faye Jefferson: In 1951, she became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree from Harvard Medical School.
Mae C. Jemison: The first African-American woman astronaut, she is also a physician.
Hazel W. Johnson-Brown: In 1979, she became the first African-American chief of the Army Nurse Corps.
Edith Irby Jones: In 1985, she was the first woman to be elected president of the National Medical Association.

Margaret Morgan Lawrence: She was the first African-American woman to become a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in the United States.
Myra Adele Logan: In 1943, she was the first woman to perform open-heart surgery.

Audrey Forbes Manley: In 1988, she became the first African-American woman to become the Assistant Surgeon General of the U.S.
Gertrude Elizabeth Curtis McPherson: In 1904, she was the first Black woman to pass the New York State Board of Dentistry.
Mildred Mitchell-Bateman: In 1962, she became the first woman to lead a state department of mental health.

Joyce Nichols: In 1970, she became the first woman formally trained as a Physician Assistant.

Joyce Nichols, center, and Shirley Thompson, right, treat Raymond Hayes in 1983.

Estelle Massey Osborne: She was the first African American to earn her master's degree in nursing.

Vivian Pinn: In 1991, she was the first woman appointed director of the Office of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health.
Inez Prosser: In 1933, she became the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in psychology.

Della H. Raney: She became the first African-American nurse in the Army Nurse Corps in 1941.

Della H. Raney, of the Army Nurse Corps.

Barbara Ross-Lee: In 1993, she became the first African-American woman appointed Dean of a medical school in the United States.

Jessie Sleet Scales: In 1900, she became the first African-American public health nurse.
Velma Scantleburry-White: She is the first African-American female transplant surgeon in the United States.
Rosalyn P. Scott: In 1977, she was the first African-American woman trained in thoracic surgery (chest surgery).
Jeanne Craig Sinkford: In 1975, she became the first woman to serve as the dean of a school of dentistry.
Ella P. Stewart: In 1916, she became the first Black woman licensed as a pharmacist in both Pennsylvania and the United States.
Mabel Keaton Staupers: She worked to end segregation in the nursing profession, leading to Black women being admitted to the Army Nurse Corps in 1941.

Yvonne Thornton: In 1981, she was the first African-American woman to be board certified in maternal-fetal medicine (care for high-risk pregnancies).

Alfreda Johnson Webb: In 1949, she was one of the first two African-American women to earn a doctor of veterinary medicine.
Jane C. Wright: In 1967, she became the Associate Dean and Professor of Surgery at New York Medical College.

Jane Cooke Wright

2000s: Modern Leaders

Regina Marcia Benjamin: She was the 18th Surgeon General of the United States, appointed in 2009.
Nadine Burke Harris: In 2019, she became the first Surgeon General of the State of California.

Nadine Burke Harris, first Surgeon General for California.

Patrice Harris: In 2018, she was the first African American president elected to the American Medical Association.

Michele Johnson: In 2014, she became the first woman and African American promoted to a full professorship of Radiology and Neurosurgery at the Yale School of Medicine.

Elizabeth O. Ofili: In 2000, she became the first woman to serve as president of the Association of Black Cardiologists.

Joan Reede: In 2001, she became the first dean for diversity and community partnership at Harvard Medical School.

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