THE DAILY NATION today continues its Black History Month series on the lives of people of colour who have made their mark on the local, regional and global stage with a look at the life of United States’ first African American female doctor.
REBECCA LEE CRUMPLER, born Rebecca Davis, on February 8, 1831, was raised in Pennsylvania by an aunt who was dedicated to looking after sick neighbours and friends.
At age 21, she moved to Charleston, Massachusetts, to work as a nurse for the next eight years. Since the first formal nursing school wouldn’t open for another 20 years, she was able to practise nursing without any sort of degree.
However, a wider door had been opened for women physicians across the country, possibly due to heavy demands for medical care of Civil War veterans, leading a new generation of women – including Crumpler – to pursue a medical degree.
In 1860, at age 29, she entered the New England Female Medical College, challenging prevailing racial prejudices of the day that often prevented Blacks from pursuing a medical career. All through her enrolment at the college, Rebecca remained diligent and persistent towards her goal.
Upon graduating, she became the first black female doctor in the United States, and in the process became a key role model for future minority female physicians entering the field. She practised in Boston until the end of the Civil War.
Then, in 1866, after the war, Crumpler moved to Richmond, Virginia, where her main focus was on the health needs of those affected by the devastation of the war. In her work with other black doctors, she tended to large groups of the poor and destitute who would have had little access to medical care. A new path was forged for health care in underserved communities.
It was in Richmond, among a black population of 30 000, that she joined other black physicians to care for freed slaves who otherwise would have received no medical care. She later returned to Boston, where she specialised in the treatment of women and children.
Her experience there, and in Virginia, led her to publish her now renowned Book Of Medical Discourses In Two Parts, one of the first known medical writings by an African American and an early guidebook on public health.
Crumpler died in 1895 at age 65.
SOURCES: Rebecca Lee Crumpler, A Medical Milestone – TIME
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