Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1895)

Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. After attending the prestigious Massachusetts private school West-Newton English and Classical School, she worked as a nurse for eight years and applied to medical school in 1860 at the New England Female Medical College (which later merged with Boston University). She was accepted and graduated four years later. Though little is known of her career, PBS reported that she worked as a physician for the Freedman’s Bureau for the State of Virginia. She later practiced in Boston’s predominantly Black neighborhood at the time, Beacon Hill, and published A Book of Medical Discourses in Two Parts.