The daughter of Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber, Rebecca Lee Davis came into the world on February 8, 1831 in Delaware. While growing up, Rebecca was filled with a passion for helping those in need; mostly likely as a result of the time she spent with her aunt in Pennsylvania who dedicated a great deal of time caring for her neighbors who were sick.
By 1852, Rebecca was a resident of Charlestown, Massachusetts and had begun a nursing career, which she continued for a period of eight years. In 1860, Rebecca was accepted into the New England Female Medical College. Though accepted to the school, obstacles continually littered her path. At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Rebecca was forced to put her studies on hold.
In 1863, she was able to return to school, but then learned her financial aid had been forfeited. Money was later made available via a tuition award she received from the Wade Scholarship Fund. The fund had been established by Ohio abolitionist, Benjamin Wade. The blessed financing allowed Rebecca to complete her studies and receive her medical degree in 1864. (It is worth noting the large demand for medical care for Civil War veterans may have played a big part in the trend to increase the numbers of female medical students.) With the degree went the title – ‘the first black American woman to graduate from college with a degree in medicine’. She was also the only black to graduate from the school, which later closed its doors in 1873 due to financial difficulties and internal dissension. The college merged with Boston University in 1873. The same year she graduated from medical school, Rebecca married Dr. Arthur Crumpler.
In her publication, Book of Medical Discourses, published in 1883, Dr. Crumpler offers her readers a synopsis of her career path:
"It may be well to state here that, 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 relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years (from 1852 to 1860); most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. From these doctors I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New EnglandFemaleMedicalCollege, whence, four years afterward, I received the degree of doctress of medicine."
Dr. Crumpler practiced medicine in Boston until the end of the Civil War. She then moved to Richmond, Virginia because she felt it would offer her “a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children. During my stay there, nearly every hour was improved in the sphere of labor.” Joining efforts with other black physicians, Dr. Crumpler availed her skills to caring for the numerous freed slaves who would have had no access to medical care otherwise.
She later returned to Boston where she restored her former medical practice. "At the close of my services in that city," she explained, "I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration." She married Dr. Arthur Crumpler before returning to Boston, where she lived on Joy Street on Beacon Hill, a mostly black neighborhood at that time. She practiced from her home, dispensing nutritional advice to women, children, and the poor In 1880, she moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts. She then ceased an active medical practice, using her time instead to create her book from the journal notes she kept while a practicing physician.
History would later record Dr. Rebecca Cole as the first black woman physician; however, the title truly belongs to Dr. Crumpler, who records show completed her medical degree three years prior to Dr. Cole receiving hers.
Dr. Rebecca Lee Davis Crumpler died March 9, 1895 in Fairview, Massachusetts. Her long forgotten story is today retold in honor of her groundbreaking achievements. Dr. Saundra Maass-Robinson and Dr. Patricia Whitley together founded the Rebecca Lee Society in 1989, an organization which supports and promotes black women physicians.
During her lifetime, Rebecca Lee Crumpler was able to accomplish not one, but two amazing feats. Overcoming racism, prejudice, and other challenging obstacles, she obtained a medical degree. Not only that, she was also a published author, something practically unheard of for the majority of blacks during that time – and even more so for black women. Her place in history has served to pave the way for those who seek to attain similar achievements.
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