Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Rebecca Lee Crumpler (born February 8, 1831, Christiana, Delaware, U.S.—died March 9, 1895, Hyde Park, Massachusetts) the first Black woman to become a medical doctor in the United States and one of the first African Americans to write a medical book. She published A Book of Medical Discourses in 1883. At a time when most medical schools did not admit African Americans, and fewer than 300 doctors among the 54,500 in the United States were women, Crumpler’s achievements were extraordinary.

Early life

Born Rebecca Davis to Absolum and Matilda Davis in Delaware, the future doctor was primarily raised in Pennsylvania by her aunt. Her aunt frequently cared for sick neighbors, which may have served as an early career influence on Davis. She later wrote in Medical Discourses, “Having been reared by a kind aunt in Pennsylvania, whose usefulness with the sick was continually sought, I early conceived a liking for, and sought every opportunity to be in a position to relieve the sufferings of others.”

Education and personal life

By 1852 Davis had moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, and had married Wyatt Lee, a formerly enslaved person, and taken his name. She was able to work as a nurse without any formal training or education. Doctors noticed her compassion and dedication, and, on their recommendation, Rebecca Lee was admitted in 1860 to the New England Female Medical College (which later merged with Boston University) in Boston. Lee briefly paused her education to care for her husband, who suffered from tuberculosis, and returned in 1863 after his death. When Lee graduated in 1864, she was not only the first African American woman in the United States to earn a medical degree but also the only African American woman to graduate from the college. The following year she married Arthur Crumpler and took his name. The couple had a daughter, Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler, in 1870.

Early practice

In the meantime, Rebecca Crumpler had started her practice as a general practitioner in Boston, but in 1865 she moved it to Richmond, Virginia. With the end of the Civil War that year, she had recognized the urgent need for medical care in the South among the numerous Black people newly freed from slavery. While in Richmond, Crumpler worked with the Freedmen’s Bureau, a government agency formed to help formerly enslaved people, and with many Black community and missionary groups to provide care.

A Book of Medical Discourses and later life

After a number of years, Crumpler returned to Boston, where she established a practice in Beacon Hill. She focused her medical activity on the illnesses affecting poor women and children. Her two-volume work, A Book of Medical Discourses (1883), was specifically aimed at women and the care of their children. Crumpler died at age 64 in Hyde Park, Massachusetts.