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Dorothy L. Brown, Surgeon and Politician born

Dorothy L. Brown

Dorothy Lavinia Brown was born on this date in 1919. She was a Black doctor, politician, and one of the first Black woman surgeons in the South.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, she was five months old when her unmarried mother placed her in the Troy Orphanage, where she lived until she was 13.  Brown first became interested in medicine at age five when she had her tonsils removed.  In 1932, Brown’s mother took her out of the orphanage, but they did not get along very well.  She ran away from home and was placed as a mother's helper in Mrs. W. F. Jarrett's house, where she was encouraged to become a doctor.

After high school, she obtained a scholarship to Bennett College, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. In 1944, she enrolled at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1948 in the top third of her class. Brown started as an intern at Harlem Hospital in New York. With strong opposition to female surgeons, she was denied a surgical residency, but she did not let this stop her from becoming a surgeon. She returned to Meharry, got a residency there, and completed it in 1954. Dorothy Brown became the first African American female surgeon in the South.

Brown served as the educational director of the Riverside-Meharry Clinical Rotation Program and the chief of surgery at Riverside. She then became the attending surgeon at George W. Hubbard Hospital and professor of surgery at the Meharry.  In addition to her other firsts in southern medicine, she became the first single woman in Tennessee to adopt a child. Brown named her new daughter Lola Brown in honor of her foster mother.

In 1966, she became the first Black woman elected to the Tennessee State Legislature for two years. She tried 1968 to run for a seat in the Tennessee Senate but lost. One of the main reasons she lost the election was her support of liberalizing the abortion laws in Tennessee. She was a fellow of the American College of Surgery, a past member of the board of trustees at Bennett College, and a member of the United Methodist Church and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Brown often spoke on scientific, religious, medical, and political panels. She wrote many essays and inspirational guides. She has also been given honorary degrees in Humanities from Bennett College and Cumberland University. Dorothy Brown, a pioneering Black female surgeon and Tennessee legislator, died of congestive heart failure in Nashville on June 13, 2004.

To become a Doctor

To Become a Political Scientist