Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler – (1831 – 1895)

As part of our blog series about women medical pioneers, meet Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black female doctor in the USA.

“I conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to relieve the sufferings of others.”

In 1864, Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first Black, female doctor in the USA. She overcame race and gender bias to achieve this remarkable feat and spent her life addressing health inequality. Her “Book of Medical Discourses” is the first medical text written by an African American.

Rebecca Lee was born in Delaware on 8th February 1831 to Matilda and Absalom Davis. She was raised by an aunt in Pennsylvania whose skills as a “healer” were much sought after by their community.

Inspired by her aunt’s passion, Rebecca, who was extremely bright and well-educated, decided to pursue a career in healthcare.

She moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts where she practised as a nurse for 8 years. The doctors she worked with were so impressed by her that they wrote letters of recommendation and encouraged her to go to medical school.

However, most medical schools barred women from training. It was widely believed that the male brain was 10% larger than the female brain and therefore women would be incapable of mastering a medical curriculum. Moreover, the content would be inappropriate for their “sensitive and delicate natures.”

An additional obstacle to Rebecca was the fact that many universities also barred African Americans from training to become doctors – both men and women.

Despite these barriers, Rebecca’s application to the New England Female Medical College was successful and she was accepted into Medical School in 1860. She was granted a Wade Scholarship, a fund which was established by an abolitionist to help people from minority backgrounds to access higher education.

After 2 years of diligent study, Rebecca requested compassionate leave to care for her husband, Lee Wyatt, a former slave, who died of tuberculosis in 1863. Some panel members tried to refuse Rebecca’s re-entry to the program after her leave of absence, stating that she was taking too long to complete the course. Thankfully, she had support from others.

In 1864, at 33 years of age, Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler received the degree of “Doctress of Medicine” and became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree.

Statistics from 1860 highlight just how incredible this achievement was: At this time there were 54,543 physicians in the USA, 300 of whom were white women, 180 were African American men.

After graduating, Rebecca practised in Boston for a short time, before moving to Richmond, Virginia at the end of the Civil War. Here she worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau, a kind of refugee camp which enabled a community of 30,000 freed slaves to access food, housing and medical care.

Cholera and smallpox were endemic. Very few African Americans had ever received medical treatment as slaves, as white physicians refused to treat them and their owners would not pay. They were denied education and therefore hadn’t been taught the importance of basic hygiene or the fundamentals of how the human body worked.

Recognising the inequalities that the Black community faced in healthcare provision, Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler was determined to help. She volunteered for free, regarding her work as a missionary service.

Focusing on preventative care and nutrition she provided medical care for the poorest and most destitute.

As a black woman, she endured racism and sexism. White doctors ignored her medical opinions and refused to admit her patients to hospital. Pharmacists would not dispense the medication she prescribed.

But Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler’s resilience and compassion triumphed and she was able to make a difference to many thousands of lives.

Rebecca married Arthur Crumpler, a fugitive slave in 1865. Their daughter, Lizzie Sinclair was born in 1870 but tragically died young. Rebecca and Arthur moved back to Boston, where she opened a medical practice serving the needs of the Black Community of Beacon Hill.

Rebecca treated all who came to her home on Joy Street, even those who could not pay. She specialised in the care of women and children. Arthur worked as a porter in West Newton English and Classical School. In later life, he took night classes there and learned to read and write at the age of 74.

In 1880, Rebecca and Arthur retired to New York where her “Book of Medical Discourses” was published. She dedicated it to “mothers, nurses, and all who may desire to mitigate the afflictions of the human race.”

Her work is widely acknowledged to be the precursor to “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” It was the first medical text written by an African American.

Dr Rebecca Lee Crumpler died on March 9, 1895 of fibroid tumours at the age of 64 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery, Hyde Park, New York without a headstone. In 2019, a fund-raising campaign was launched to give her and her husband commemorative headstones.

Today, there are still many barriers to higher education for people from minority ethnic backgrounds. Less than 3% of practising physicians in the USA identify as Black or African American women. We still have much work to do in addressing health inequalities.

The “Rebecca Lee Crumpler Scholarship Fund” at the Boston University School of Medicine awards need-based scholarships to Black women who aspire to become physicians.