People, Locations, Episodes

Cortland Van Rensselaer Creed , Doctor born

*This date in 1833 is celebrated as the birth date of Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Creed, a Black Doctor. His attendance at Yale followed the Connecticut Assembly’s decision in 1846 to remove references to race from the state constitution. In 1854, he officially became the first Black person to register and study at Yale.   Twenty years […]

Robert Reyburn, Doctor, and Administrator born

*Robert Reyburn was born on this date in 1833. He was a white-American doctor. He was born in Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland, the son of James Reyburn and Jane Brown. In 1856, he graduated from the Philadelphia College of Medicine and Surgery. In January 1865, Dr. Robert Reyburn assumed the leadership of Freedmen’s Hospital. The following year, […]

William A. Hinton, Microbiologist born

On this date in 1883, William Augustus Hinton was born. He was an African American doctor, professor, and the first Black to publish an academic textbook.

Hinton was from Chicago. He attended the University of Kansas from 1900 to 1902 and then transferred to Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1912 and taught bacteriology and immunology there from 1921 to 1946. During this time (1936), he wrote and published “Syphilis and Its Treatment.” He was promoted to clinical professor in 1949, the first Black man to hold such a position.

The New York Colored Orphan Asylum Opens

*The New York Colored Orphan Asylum is celebrated on this date in 1836. This was a healthcare facility in New York City that existed until 1946. The Colored Orphan Asylum was founded in Manhattan by three Quakers: Anna, Hanna Shotwell, and Mary Lindley Murray. It was one of the first of its kind in the […]

Anderson R. Abbott, Canadian Physician born

*Anderson Ruffin Abbott was born on this date in1837. He was an African Canadian physician and soldier.

From Toronto, Canada, his parents were Wilson R. and Ellen Toyer Abbott, who had emigrated as “free people of color” from Mobile, Alabama, to Toronto in 1835. Anderson Abbott was educated at Toronto Academy where he was an honor student, and Oberlin College, Ohio from 1856 to 1858. In 1861 he graduated in medicine from Trinity College, University of Toronto. He was licensed with the medical board of Upper Canada in 1862. His mentor Was Dr. Alexander T. Augusta.

Benjamin A. Boseman, Doctor and Politician born

*Benjamin A. Boseman was born on this date in 1840. He was a Black physician and politician. Benjamin Antony Boseman Jr. was born in Troy, New York, the son of Benjamin and Annaretta Boseman, the oldest of five children. In the 1860 U.S. Census, he was listed as mulatto. His father was a steward on a […]

Charles B. Purvis, Physician born

*Charles Burleigh Purvis was born on this date in 1842.  He was a Black physician. Purvis was born in Philadelphia, PA.; his parents were white abolitionists Robert Purvis and Harriet Forten Purvis. Charles was the fifth of eight children and worked as a young man. He attended some public schools, but most of his schooling was with the Quakers. […]

Mary Mahoney, Nursing Pioneer born

On this date in 1845, Mary Mahoney was born. She was a nurse, the first Black woman to hold that position in the United States.

Born in the Dorchester section of Boston, she was the oldest of three children. At eighteen, she began working at the New England Hospital for Women and Children as a cook and cleaning woman. Mahoney was always interested in becoming a nurse and in 1878, at the age of 33, she was accepted as a student nurse in the hospital. It was a rigorous program and on August 1, 1879, Mary was one of only four to graduate out of forty-two entries.

Granville Hall, Racial Theorist born

*Granville Hall was born on this date in 1846. He was a white-American psychologist, racial eugenics theorist, and educator. Born in Ashfield, Massachusetts, Granville Stanley Hall grew up on a farm with his parents, Granville Bascom Hall, who served in the Massachusetts legislature, and Abigail Beals, who attended Albany Female Seminary and became a teacher. […]

Rebecca Cole, Doctor born

*Rebecca J. Cole was born on this date in 1846. She was one of the first Black woman physicians in America and was the first Black woman to graduate from the Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania.

Susan M. Steward, Teacher, and Doctor born

*The birth of Susan McKinney Steward in 1847, is celebrated on this date. A physician, she was one of the first Black women to earn a medical degree, and the first in New York State.

Mary Armstrong, Nurse born

*Mary Armstrong was born on June 7, 1847.  She was a Black slave and nurse. She was born Mary Adams into slavery near St. Louis, Missouri, on a plantation to Sam Adams and Silby. Mary, her baby sister, and her mother belonged to plantation owners William and Polly [Pauline] Cleveland. Mary’s father belonged to William Adams, a […]

George F. Grant, Dentist, and Inventor born

*George Grant was born on this date in 1847. He was a Black inventor, dentist, and the first Black professor at Harvard. George Franklin Grant was born in Oswego, New York, to Phillis Pitt and Tudor Elanor Grant.  Grant entered the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1868 and graduated in 1870. He then took […]

Lewis Latimer, Poet, and Inventor born

*Lewis Howard Latimer was born on this date in 1848. He was an African American inventor and innovator in the electric lighting industry.

Caroline Still Anderson, Doctor and Abolitionist born.

*Caroline Still Anderson was born on this date in 1848. She was a Black doctor and abolitionist. Early life and education Caroline Still was born in Philadelphia and was the oldest daughter of four to Letitia and William Still. Both of her parents were leaders in the American abolitionist movement. Her father led the Philadelphia branch […]