​Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler

African American Women in US History​
Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler

​Our country’s first African-American woman physician, Rebecca Davis, was born in 1831 and lived with an aunt who cared for ailing neighbors.

Care for poor Blacks was almost non-existent in Delaware, but when she married Wyatt Lee, she moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she became employed as a nurse until she was accepted into the New England Female Medical College in 1860, which was very rare for Black women. She received a degree of “Doctress of Medicine.”
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Rebecca Davis Lee became the first African-American woman in the US to earn a Doctorate in Medicine.  Her practical experience in medicine, and her studies, led her to write A Book of Medical Discourses, a guide for women for dealing with their families’ medical challenges.  She sought every opportunity to, in her words, to “relieve the suffering of others.”

After the Civil War, she moved to Richmond, Virginia, with her second husband, Arthur Crumpler, so  her name now became Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler.  In Richmond, she served a community of over 30,000 Blacks.  She worked for the Freedmen’s Bureau to provide care for freed slaves.  Here, she met with racism and misogyny, since doctors and pharmacists snubbed her.

But when she moved back to Boston, to a predominantly African-American community, she was able to continue her practice with renewed enthusiasm. 

She died in 1895.  The Rebecca Lee Society was named in her honor. 

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by Mieke Tazelaar
Image source: Kate Bogert's Rampage
Further reading: Wikipedia.

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Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler 
Revised Feb-28-2017