February is US Black History Month. It’s also a month to raise awareness of the extremely inequitable treatment Black communities have faced in the US, and the amazing contributions Black individuals and communities have made to the wellness of all people, despite the ongoing disadvantages.
Dr. James McCune Smith (1813–1865)
The first Black American doctor was James McCune Smith. His early coursework from the African Free School in New York showed that he was a gifted and hardworking student who championed education.
After graduating, James McCune Smith decided to study medicine. He received a bachelor, master’s, and medical doctorate from Glasgow University in Scotland. He pursued his career despite US medical institutions’ ban on Black students.
In 1837, he returned to New York to practice medicine. He was an abolitionist who helped establish the National Council of Colored People in Rochester, New York, in 1855 alongside Frederick Douglass.
He wrote several scientific and abolitionist publications, including ones that disproved racial ideas, such as Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, phrenology, and the 1840 US Census’s racial prejudice. According to historian Thomas M. Morgan, Smith “made the overthrow of slavery plausible and effective” in addition to practicing medicine.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895)
The first Black American doctor was Rebecca Lee Crumpler. She was born in Delaware but reared in Pennsylvania by her aunt, who treated the ill using her ancestors’ wisdom.
Rebecca attended West-Newton English and Classical School in Massachusetts. She became a nurse in Charlestown, Massachusetts, after graduating. She bravely applied to the New England Female Medical College in 1860, 10 years after its founding, since she loved helping the sick. Rebecca was admitted, but she had to challenge two powerful societal beliefs: First, women lacked the physical and emotional stamina to perform medicine. Second, Blacks were dumb.
Since the New England Female Medical College closed in 1873, Dr. Crumpler was the sole Black graduate in 1864. Dr. Crumpler was one of 300 women doctors registered in 1860 and the only Black woman physician in the US for years.
After the Civil War ended in 1865, Dr. Crumpler served as a doctor under General Orlando Brown, the Assistant Commissioner of the Freedman’s Bureau, treating over 30,000 freed slaves, most of whom were women and children, despite her colleagues’ prejudice and misogyny.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler produced A Book of Medical Discourses in 1883 to treat, prevent, and cure various illnesses in newborns, children, and women. Doctors of all races utilized the first Black medical treatise for years.
Mary Eliza Mahoney (1845–1926)
The first American Black nurse was Mary Eliza Mahoney. Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first Black woman to get her