61 Black Women in Medicine You Should Know
Images via the US National Library of Medicine
They’re the firsts, the pioneers, and the leaders who’ve impacted medicine
Black History Month has been official in the United States since 1970, but Black women were an important part of medicine in America long before that. Dr. Rebecca Crumpler was the first Black woman in the US to earn a medical degree in 1864—before the Civil War had even ended.
Throughout history, Black women in medicine have faced double discrimination based on both race and sex. They have persevered to achieve great things in medicine, research, advocacy, and public health.
Here are 61 Black women featured in the United States National Library of Medicine's exhibit Rise, Serve, Lead: America's Women Physicians. Celebrate this Black History Month by learning more about these women, their stories, and their contributions to medicine.
Rebecca Crumpler, MD: Dr. Crumpler was the first Black woman in the US to earn an MD. She became a doctor in 1864 and published a book of medical advice for women and children in 1883.
Rebecca Cole, MD: Dr. Cole was the second Black woman to earn an MD. She practiced medicine for 50 years.
Helen Octavia Dickens, MD: In 1950, Dr. Dickens became the first Black woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons.
Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD: Dr. Gaston was the first Black woman to lead a public health service bureau. Her study on sickle cell anemia led to a nationwide screening program for newborns.
Dorothy Ferebee, MD: Dr. Ferebee was an advocate for racial equality and women's healthcare. She was the medical director of the Mississippi Health Project, bringing state and federal resources to impoverished Black communities in the rural South during the Great Depression.
Matilda Evans, MD: Dr. Evans was the first Black woman to practice medicine in South Carolina, and she founded the Taylor Lane Hospital.
Edith Irby Jones, MD: In 1985, Dr. Jones was the first woman to be elected president of the National Medical Association.
Joan Y. Reede, MD: Dr. Reede works to promote better healthcare policies for minority populations and recruits minority students to the biomedical field.
Virginia M. Alexander, MD: In 1931, Dr. Alexander founded the Aspiranto Health Home in her own house and cared for the most vulnerable members of her community.
Ethel Allen, MD: In addition to her medical career, Dr. Allen was elected to Philadelphia's City Council and was eventually made Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. She described herself as “BFR—a black, female, Republican. An entity as rare as a black elephant and just as smart.”
Patricia Bath, MD: Dr. Bath was an ophthalmologist, laser scientist, research scientist, and advocate for blindness prevention. She invented laserphaco, a device and technique for cataract surgery. She also created the discipline of community ophthalmology, and in 1983, she became the first woman to chair an ophthalmology residency in the United States.
Lillian M. Beard, MD: Dr. Beard is a pediatrician who uses modern media to make “house calls,” reaching an audience of patients at home.
G. Valerie Beckles-Neblett, MD: Dr. Beckles-Neblett is a network medical director for Aetna Southwest, managing medical costs and patient services. She also leads medical missions abroad.
Regina Marcia Benjamin, MD: Dr. Benjamin served as the 18th US Surgeon General, under President Barack Obama. She is the founder and CEO of BayouClinic on the Gulf Coast of Alabama.
JudyAnn Bigby, MD: Dr. Bigby served as the director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Excellence in Women's Health and is nationally recognized for her work educating physicians in providing care to people with histories of substance abuse.
Clara Arena Brawner, MD: In the mid-1950s, Dr. Brawner was the only Black physician practicing in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dorothy Lavinia Brown, MD: Dr. Brown was the first Black woman surgeon in the South and the first Black woman to be made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.
U. Diane Buckingham, MD: Dr. Buckingham began her medical career as a registered nurse, but she then became a doctor and psychiatrist.
Judith Martin Cadore, MD: Dr. Cadore is on a mission to eliminate healthcare disparities in rural Texas.
Alexa Irene Canady, MD: In 1981, Dr. Canady became the first Black woman to become a neurosurgeon in the United States.
Donna M. Christian-Christensen, MD: In addition to practicing family medicine, Dr. Christian-Christensen served nine terms in the US House of Representatives as the delegate from the US Virgin Islands.
Sadye Beatryce Curry, MD: In 1972, Dr. Curry became the first Black woman to become a gastroenterologist.
Janice Green Douglas, MD: Dr. Douglas, a fellow of the American Heart Association, was the first woman to become a Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. She researched hypertension and how cells control blood pressure.
Georgia Rooks Dwelle, MD: Dr. Dwelle was the first woman to graduate from Spelman College and go on to medical school. In 1920, she established the first maternity hospital for Black women in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ruth Marguerite Easterling, MD: Dr. Easterling was a pathologist who worked with Dr. William Augustus Hinton, the Black physician who developed the Hinton test for syphilis. Dr. Easterling also served on the staff of the Tuskegee Veterans Administration Hospital and was the director of laboratories at the Cambridge Massachusetts City Hospital.
Lena Frances Edwards, MD: Dr. Edwards was one of the first Black women to be board certified in obstetrics and gynecology and gain admission to the International College of Surgeons.
M. Joycelyn Elders, MD: Dr. Elders was the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology, the 15th Surgeon General of the United States, and the second woman to head the US Public Health Service.
Roselyn Payne Epps, MD: Dr. Epps was the first Black woman to serve locally and nationally as president of the American Medical Women's Association and was an advocate for women, minorities, and the underserved.
Justina Laurena Ford, MD: In 1902, Dr. Ford became the first Black woman to practice medicine in the state of Colorado. In 1950, she was still the only one.
Vanessa Northington Gamble, MD: Dr. Gamble is a physician and medical historian. She chaired the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Legacy Committee in 1997, prompting a presidential apology for the treatment of Black patients.
Helene Gayle, MD: Dr. Gayle has devoted her career to the research, control, and prevention of HIV/AIDS, as well as other sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. She is the director of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis Program.
Eliza Ann Grier, MD: Dr. Grier was emancipated from slavery. She became a doctor in 1898, the first Black woman to be licensed to practice medicine in the state of Georgia.
Maxine Hayes, MD: Dr. Hayes joined the faculty of the University of Washington’s Medical School in 1985 and was appointed State Health Officer of the Washington State Department of Health in 1988. She has dedicated her career to the prevention of disease.
Gertrude Teixeira Hunter, MD: Dr. Hunter was the national director of health services for Project Head Start, and in 1965, she helped implement the first national comprehensive health program for preschool children.
Grace Marilynn James, MD: Dr. James was one of the first two Black women on the faculty at a southern medical school and the first Black person on the staff of the Louisville Children's Hospital and on the faculty of the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Mae C. Jemison, MD: Dr. Jemison is a physician, scientist, teacher, chemical engineer, and astronaut.
Renee Rosalind Jenkins, MD: Dr. Jenkins was the first Black president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and also the first Black president of the Society of Adolescent Medicine.
Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, MD: In 1891, Dr. Johnson became the first woman of any race to practice medicine in the state of Alabama. When she passed the state medical exam, it was noted in The New York Times.
Paula A. Johnson, MD: Dr. Johnson created one of the first facilities in the country to focus on heart disease in women.
Agnes D. Lattimer, MD: Dr. Lattimer was a pediatrician, teacher, and advocate for patients, eventually becoming the medical director of Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She said she was proudest that, "I was able to impact all of the medical and surgical services by introducing a 'Philosophy of Caring' for the patients which emphasized focusing on competence and compassion in the delivery of medical care."
Risa J. Lavizzo-Mourey, MD: Dr. Lavizzo-Mourey's career has combined geriatric medicine, health policy, and business management. She was the first Black person and woman to hold the post of president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Margaret Morgan Lawrence, MD: When she attended in 1932, Dr. Lawrence was the only Black student at Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. In 1948, she was the first Black resident admitted to the New York Psychiatric Institute. She devoted her career to child mental health and became the first practicing child psychiatrist in Rockland County.
Audrey Forbes Manley, MD: Dr. Manley was appointed Assistant Surgeon General in 1988, the first Black woman to hold a position of that rank in the US Public Health Service.
Shirley F. Marks, MD: From 1981-1990, Dr. Marks appeared on Good Morning Houston as a mental health expert, reducing the stigma associated with mental health disorders.
Janet L. Mitchell, MD: Dr. Mitchell has devoted her career in obstetrics and gynecology to serving the most disenfranchised.
Elizabeth Odiile Ofili, MD: Dr. Ofili is a professor of medicine, chief of cardiology, and director and principal investigator of the Clinical Research Center at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. She is nationally recognized for her expertise in echocardiography.
Lucille C. Norville Perez, MD: Dr. Perez was associate director of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. She headed the internationally renowned Faculty Department Program at CSAP.
Muriel Petioni, MD: Dr. Petioni was known as “the matron of Harlem health” and continued to advocate for patients into her late eighties.
Vivian W. Pinn, MD: When she graduated in 1967, Dr. Pinn was both the only Black person and woman in her class at medical school. She went on to become the first Black woman to chair an academic pathology department in the United States and the first full-time director of the Office of Research on Women’s Health at the National Institutes of Health.
Deborah Prothrow-Stith, MD: Dr. Prothrow-Stith is a leader in addressing violence as a public health issue and has worked to prevent violence through education since the early 1980s.
Clarice D. Reid, MD: Dr. Reid was a pediatrician and eventually the director of the Division of Blood Diseases and Resources; the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute; and the National Institutes of Health—where she planned, directed, and evaluated research in blood diseases.
Barbara Ross-Lee, DO: Dr. Ross-Lee was the first Black woman to be appointed dean of a US medical school.
Rosalyn P. Scott, MD: Dr. Scott was the first Black woman to be trained in thoracic surgery and the first Black woman to be granted membership in the Society of University Surgeons.
Omega C. Logan Silva, MD: Dr. Silva is a long-time advocate for universal healthcare and a professor emeritus at George Washington University.
Jeannette E. South-Paul, MD: Dr. South-Paul became the first woman and the first Black person to chair the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
Jeanne Spurlock, MD: Dr. Spurlock was a doctor, teacher, writer, and psychiatrist who brought attention to the medical stresses particular to marginalized people.
Natalia M. Tanner, MD: Dr. Tanner was a pediatrician who advocated for patients' access to healthcare and minority physicians' access to medical institutions.
Debi Thomas, MD: Dr. Thomas is both a physician and Olympic medalist in figure skating.
Yvonnecris Smith Veal, MD: Dr. Veal was the first woman to chair the board of trustees of the National Medical Association and eventually became the NMA's 95th president, only the fourth woman to do so.
Jane Cook Wright, MD: Dr. Wright developed new techniques for administering chemotherapy to cancer patients. In 1967, she was the highest-ranking Black woman in a US medical institution.
Terri L. Young, MD: Dr. Young is a pediatric ophthalmologist and researcher. She says, “I love helping people. I love the fact that when I perform surgery, there is an almost instantaneous transformation in that person's life regarding their vision. I hope that my research in eye disorders will benefit humankind for generations to come.”