Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States when she graduated from New England Female Medical College in 1864. She achieved this in the middle of the Civil War, in a country that considered her less than human.
After the war, Crumpler moved to Richmond, Virginia — the former capital of the Confederacy — to provide medical care to newly freed Black people through the Freedmen's Bureau. She faced hostility from white pharmacists who refused to fill her prescriptions and white doctors who refused to acknowledge her credentials.
In 1883, she published "A Book of Medical Discourses," one of the first medical texts written by a Black person in America. It focused on the health of women and children — populations she served her entire career.
I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.— Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler
Key Milestones
A Life in Firsts
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