Dr. Riley Ransom
*Riley Andrew Ransom, a Black physician, was born on this date in 1886 in Columbus, KY.
He was the son of Allen and Alice Ransom and a cousin to Bishop Isaac Lane, founder of Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. Ransom initially attended Lane College but soon transferred to Southern Illinois State Normal University in Carbondale, where he earned his undergraduate degree. In 1908, he graduated from the Louisville National Medical College as valedictorian. Ransom took his state board of medicine in Oklahoma City and later settled in Fort Worth, Texas, where he was the first Black surgeon in Tarrant County.
He also helped establish the first hospital for Blacks, the Booker T. Washington Sanitarium. Dr. Riley Ransom died on January 4, 1951, and is buried in the New Trinity Cemetery in Fort Worth. In 1986, the cemetery was declared a historical site. Markers at the site honor the 100-year-old cemetery and Dr. Ransom's contributions.
B. R. Sanders, “Doctor left a record of early struggles.”
Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 09/19/2003, METRO section, p. 1B;
“Black History Month” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 02/15/1994, METRO section, p. 11.
