Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, was born in 1833 in Richmond, VA. She graduated in 1864 with her MD (after working as a nurse for several years) from the New England Female Medical College in Boston and worked extensively with the Freedmen’s Bureau… Read more

Rebecca J. Cole (born March 16, 1846 in Philadelphia, PA) was the second African-American woman to obtain a medical degree in the United States. She graduated from the Woman’s Medical College in Pennsylvania (now administered by Drexel University) in 1867.  Over the course of her medical career, which spanned over fifty years, she fought for… Read more