Rebecca Lee Crumpler
Born on February 8, 1831, in Delaware, Crumpler, having spent time with her aunt who catered to the sick, got moved to pursue medical training. Between 1852 and 1860, Crumpler practiced as a nurse in the Charlestown neighborhood of Boston, MA, before graduating from the New England Female Medical College in 1864, when she became the first Black female physician in the United States. She cared for formerly enslaved Black people at a time few white doctors would see Black patients. In her Book of Medical Discourses, published in 1883, she wrote that her aim was to “relieve the suffering of others.”
