People, Locations, Episodes

John Lowery, Physician, and Activist born

*John Lowery was born on this date in 1860. He was an African American physician, businessman and politician.

Walter Plecker, Public Health Segregationist born

*Walter Plecker was born on this date in 1861. He was a white American physician, public health advocate and racial separatist.

LuLu Fleming, Medical Missionary born

*Louise Cecelia Fleming was born on this date in 1862. She was a Black medical missionary.

From Hibernia Clay County, Florida she was born a slave and was nicknamed LuLu. She attended Shaw University, graduating as class valedictorian in1885. Fleming was the first African American woman to be commissioned for work in Africa by the Woman’s American Baptist Foreign Missionary Society. Two years later Fleming left America, stopped in Europe and then began working as a missionary for five years in Palabala, Congo (now Zaire).

Robert S. Brown, Physician born

*Robert S. Brown was born on this date in 1863. He was a Black doctor. Born in Staunton, Virginia, Robert Sirelle Brown studied at the integrated Bennett Medical College in Chicago, now part of Loyola University. Upon graduating in 1895, Brown practiced in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where he married Julia Perrin. The couple had three children […]

Eliza Anna Grier, Doctor, and Teacher born

*This date in 1864 is celebrated as the birth date of Eliza Anna Grier, a Black doctor and teacher.  Born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to Emily and George Washington Grier. In 1884, she enrolled in the Normal Department at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. She worked through school, alternating years between coursework and jobs, […]

The First Black Woman In America Graduates with a Medical Degree

*On this date in 1864 the first Black woman attained a Medical Degree.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler graduated from the New England Female Medical College on this date. Crumpler worked from 1852-1860 as a nurse in Massachusetts.

Georgia Patton Washington, Doctor born

On this date in 1864, Georgia E. Patton Washington was born. She was the first Black woman licensed as a physician and surgeon in the state of Tennessee, and one of the first Black-American medical missionaries in Africa.

Charles Roman, Doctor, and Activist born

Charles Victor Roman was born on this date in 1864. He was an African American physician, professor, author, and activist.

Monroe A. Majors, Physician born

*Monroe Majors was born on this date in 1864.  He was a Black physician, writer, and civil rights activist in Texas and Los Angeles.   Monroe Alpheus Majors was born in Waco, Texas, and was the son of Andrew Jackson Majors and Jane Barringer. In 1869, they moved to Austin, Texas, where Majors attended Freedmen’s […]

Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, Doctor born

*Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson was born on this date in 1864.  She was a Black doctor.  Born Halle Tanner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was the oldest daughter of nine children to Benjamin Tucker and Sarah Elizabeth Tanner. Johnson was well educated and, as a young girl, became familiar with the work of prominent Black intellectuals. She worked with […]

Verina M. Jones, Physician, and Public Servant born

*Verina Morton Jones was born on this date in 1865. She was a Black physician, suffragist, and clubwoman. Verina Harris Morton Jones was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to William D. and Kittie Stanley. From 1884 to 1888, she attended the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated and earned her M.D. in 1888. […]

Jesse Sleet Scales, Nurse born

*This date in 1865 is celebrated as the birth date of Jessie Sleet Scales, a Black nurse and public health advocate.    Jessie Sleet was born in Stratford, Canada. She attended Provident Hospital in Chicago and graduated in 1895. She then took a half-year course at the Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. She worked at […]

Samuel G. Elbert, Doctor born

*On this date in 1865, Samuel G. Elbert, Sr., was born. He was a Black Doctor, Businessman, and Civic and Community Leader. He was born on a farm near Chestertown, Maryland. He received an early education in the primary schools of Chestertown and later entered the pre-medical program at Howard University in Washington, D.C. In 1891, he […]

Dr. Thomas Unthank, Kansas City Medical Pioneer born

*The birth of Thomas C. Unthank in 1866 is celebrated on this date. He was an African American Physician.

From Greensboro, North Carolina, he enrolled at Howard University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. in 1894. He graduated in 1898, moved to Kansas City, Missouri and opened Lange Hospital. In 1903 a devastating flood hit Kansas City. Hundreds of people were injured or sick, and all hospitals were overcrowded with the wounded. Convention Hall, in downtown Kansas City, became a makeshift hospital.

Valdo Turner, Physician born.

*The birth of Valdo Turner is celebrated on this date in 1866. He was a Black doctor. Valdo Turner was from Tennessee; he had seven siblings. Turner graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1898 and relocated to St. Paul, Minnesota. He married Clara Elizabeth Turner in 1918 in St. Paul, Minnesota. They had one daughter: Valdora Frazer […]