In the 19th century, not only was there racism against Blacks who were believed to be less intelligent than white people but there was also the same belief about women, Black or white. No field was more restrictive and closed to females than the medical profession dominated by white males.
This intersection of race and gender in the medical profession was a major obstacle for Rebecca Lee Crumpler, but she overcame those impediments to become the FIRST Black female doctor in American History. This is her story.
In 1831, Rebecca Lee Crumpler was born Rebecca Davis in Christiana, Delaware to Matilda Webber and Absolum Davis. She was raised in Pennsylvania by her aunt who cared for ill townspeople. Her aunt acted as the doctor in her community and had a huge influence on Crumpler's decision to pursue a career in medicine. Rebecca moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1852, where she worked as a nurse before applying and becoming accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the only African American student at the school.
Under normal circumstances, she might not have been admitted at all, but due to the heavy demands of medical care for American Civil War veterans, opportunities increased for women physicians and doctors. Due to her talent, Crumpler was recommended to attend the school by her supervising physician when she was a medical apprentice.
Crumpler graduated from New England Female Medical College in 1864 after having completed three years of coursework, a thesis, and final oral examinations in February 1864. On March 1, 1864, the school's board of trustees named her a Doctor of Medicine. She was the only African American graduate and the country's first African American woman to become a formally trained physician.
Dr. Crumpler practiced in Boston for a short while before moving to Richmond, Virginia, after the Civil War ended in 1865. Richmond, she felt, would be "a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children.” She also reflected later that, “During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled . . . to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored."
She joined other black physicians caring for freed slaves who would otherwise have had no access to medical care, working with the Freedmen's Bureau, and missionary and community groups, even though Black physicians experienced intense racism working in the postwar South.
Later she moved back to Boston where she spent the rest of her life and professional career. "At the close of my services in that city [Richmond]," she explained, "I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration." She worked there until 1880 when she retired from medical practice, but she had one more contribution to make.
In 1883 Rebecca Crumpler published her Book of Medical Discourses based on her notes and experience from decades of medical practice. It is considered one of the very first medical publications by an African American. Her main desire in presenting this book was to emphasize the "possibilities of prevention." She was one of the first to recommend such a course.
Her medical book is divided into two sections: in the first part she focuses on preventing and mitigating intestinal problems that can occur around the teething period until the child is about five years of age; the second part mainly focuses on the "life and growth of beings", the beginning of womanhood and the prevention and cure of most of the "distressing complaints" of both sexes. Her book was a major contribution to the medical field in the late 1800s.
Rebecca Crumpler died on March 9, 1895, in Fairview, Massachusetts, while still residing in Hyde Park. Arthur, her husband, died in May 1910, and they are both buried at the nearby Fairview Cemetery. Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler were buried in unmarked graves for 125 years, until 2020, when they received granite headstones for their gravesite from donations. The granite stone was the result of a fundraising appeal spearheaded by Vicky Gall, president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library.
There are no known photographs of Rebecca Crumpler, but a Boston newspaper article describes her in her 60s as “tall and straight, with light brown skin and gray hair”. Rebecca Crumpler was ahead of her time, promoting preventive medicine, and she paved the way for women of color in the field of public health.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler is just now beginning to be memorialized for her role in opening the medical field to Black women. In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared March 30 (National Doctors Day) the Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day. And, February 8, 2021, was declared "Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day" in Boston as part of the 190th anniversary of her birth. Overcoming both racism and sexism is her lasting legacy.