Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831 – 1895) was the first African American female physician in the United States. She initially trained as a nurse, learning from her aunt who was the only healthcare provider in their Pennsylvania community. The doctors Rebecca worked alongside noticed her talent and wrote letters to the New England Female Medical College in Boston recommending her for enrollment. At the time Dr. Crumpler received her medical degree, there were 54,543 physicians in the country; 270 were women (all white) and 180 were African American men. She would be the only African American woman to graduate from NEFMC.
After the Civil War, she and her husband (Arthur) moved to Richmond, Virginia motivated by their faith in order to provide medical care for the formerly enslaved. Dr. Crumpler saw this as a move into the mission field to provide care for those who were in poverty and faced lingering racism in the former confederate capitol city. She partnered with the Freedmen’s Bureau, which was established by Congress in 1865 to assist recently emancipated slaves in their transition to freedom, but the Bureau was discontinued by Congress in 1872. This decision to discontinue the Freedmen’s Bureau was part of the larger effort to strip Black individuals from the gains they were beginning to make during Reconstruction.
During Dr. Crumpler’s career, she kept a journal of her experiences, medical findings and in 1883 wrote “A Book of Medical Discourses” that covered maternal and child health, pregnancy, nursing, and teething. If you have ever heard of, “What to Expect When You’re Expecting”, this was considered the first iteration. This book was also the first book by an African American to be published in the United States. The picture accompanying this article is this book because there are no surviving pictures of Dr. Crumpler; anything found online is an educated guess that it is in fact her. This is a stark reminder of how our collective history is not complete.
As this series on Black medical pioneers wraps up, I hope you have an elevated curiosity and seek to learn history and perspectives that were never captured in history books. “So that all people may know of Your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of Your kingdom” – Psalm 145:12.