List of African-American women in medicine

African-American women have been practicing medicine informally in the contexts of midwifery and herbalism centuries, but have only been practicing medicine formally as physicians since 1864, when Rebecca Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree.

1800s

• Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler was the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
• Rebecca J. Cole was the second African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
• Eliza Ann Grier was the first African-American woman to practice medicine in the state of Georgia.

1900s

• Virginia Alexander was a public health official and physician in Philadelphia.^[1]
• Alexa Canady is the first African-American woman to become a neurosurgeon and practiced as a pediatric neurosurgeon.^[2]
• Joycelyn Elders was the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States

2000s

• Paula A. Johnson - 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

References

1. "Virginia Alexander". Changing the Face of Medicine.
2. "Dr. Alexa Irene Canady". Changing the Face of Medicine.