Crumpler, Rebecca Lee

Impact on the world

Became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the United States, later providing medical care to freed slaves in Virginia who had no other access to physicians.

Life & background

A physician, Crumpler became the first African-American woman to earn a medical degree in the U.S., graduating from the New England Female Medical College in 1864. She practiced in Virginia after the Civil War, treating freed slaves who otherwise lacked access to medical care, and later published one of the first medical texts written by an African-American author.

Sources

1. National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity; NLM Changing the Face of Medicine; U.S. National Park Service; The Lancet