I didn’t want to let February go by without highlighting a Black physician but this month almost got away from me!
On this last day and hour of February, I want to introduce you to Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. I hope you already knew about her but I didn’t. She is recognized for being the first Black woman to receive a medical degree in the United States (doctress of Medicine).
She was born in Delaware but spent her early years in Pennsylvania, being raised by an aunt. This aunt inspired her to care for the sick. She graduated from the New England Female Medical College (Boston Female Medical College) in 1864 but had been a nurse for some time before. Her class included 12 women physicians. At that time, there were about 300 women physicians in the country, out of 54,543 total physicians. No other Black woman graduated from this college until it shut down in 1873.
The focus of her work was with formerly enslaved Black people and after the Civil War ended in 1865, she moved to Richmond, Virginia to work for the Freedmen’s Bureau. She provided care to people that would have otherwise had little access to healthcare. She eventually moved back to Boston, where she started a practice for all patients, whether they could pay her or not in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
She wrote Book of Medical Discourses , published in 1883 that provides guidance on maternal and child health. Her dedication reads, “To mothers, nurses, and all who desire to mitigate the afflictions of the human race, this book is prayerfully offered.” She ends the introduction by stating, “My chief desire in presenting this book is to impress upon somebody’s mind the possibilities of prevention.
There is a not a lot known about Dr. Lee Crumpler and there are no photographs of her available. She married twice and had one child. Dr. Lee Crumpler passed away in 1895.
Even though there is not a lot of information out there about her, she was an example of the type of physician that I would like to be and I want to be sure to help spread the word about who she was and the type of work she did.
References
Cohut, Maria. Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler: The First Black Woman MD in the US. Medical News Today. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/dr-rebecca-lee-crumpler-the-first-black-woman-md-in-the-usFebruary 8, 2021.
NIH. Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. Changing the Face of Medicine. https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_73.html October 14, 2003 (last reviewed 2015).
National Park Service. Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler. https://www.nps.gov/people/dr-rebecca-lee-crumpler.htm April 12, 2021.