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Sun, 01.22.1871

Justina Ford, Doctor, and Humanitarian born

Justina Ford

*This date marks the birth of Justina Ford, a Black physician and humanitarian, in 1871.

From Knoxville, a small town a few miles east of Galesburg, Illinois, Justina Laurena Warren grew up in Galesburg. Her interest in medicine was cultivated at a young age. She graduated from Herring Medical College in Chicago in 1899.   She first practiced in Normal, Alabama, and soon after, she met and married John E. Ford, a young minister. The couple moved to Denver, Colorado.

Throughout her career, Dr. Ford faced the obstacles of being both Black and a woman in a profession that much of society felt belonged to white males. She attended Zion Baptist Church and was the first woman physician licensed to practice medicine in Colorado.

As a doctor who broke down barriers for Blacks and women, Ford also worked as a humanitarian. Her expertise in gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics was often provided to low-income and indigent people of all races. During her distinguished practice of more than 50 years, she delivered over 7,000 babies; she became affectionately known as the “Lady Doctor.” Ford received numerous awards; her legacy lives through the Black America West Museum and Heritage Center, the Dr. Justina Ford Medical Society, and the Ford-Warren Library.

The Colorado Medical Society, which denied Ford membership until 1950, passed a resolution in 1989 honoring her posthumously “as an outstanding figure in the development and furtherance of health care in Colorado.” Justina Laurena Carter Ford died in 1952.

To become a Doctor

Reference:

Colorado Virtual Library.org

Colorado Encuclopedia.org

Black Women in America An Historical Encyclopedia
Volumes 1 and 2, edited by Darlene Clark Hine
Copyright 1993, Carlson Publishing Inc., Brooklyn, New York
ISBN 0-926019-61-9

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