Doctor Curmudgeon: I Don’t Know How She Did it

By Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D. FAAP Doctor Eisman is in Family Practice in Aventura, Florida with her partner, Dr. Eugene Eisman, an internist/cardiologist

In 1860, it was not easy for a woman to aspire to a career in Medicine. And if you were a black woman…forget about it!

But Rebecca Lee Crumpler refused to forget about becoming a physician.

Her road was long, difficult, and frustrating.

Born in 1831, she lived with her aunt who was a nurse well known in the community as a healer. Young Rebecca was her frequent companion on trips to heal the sick.

She watched.

She learned.

In 1852, Rebecca’s career began as a nurse assisting several doctors. In those days nurses had no formal education, and so Rebecca spent the next eight years performing medical duties under a physician’s supervision.

She watched.

She learned.

Years later, Rebecca wrote, “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.”

In the mid-19th century, medical school admission was limited to white men. It was rare for black men and women to matriculate. No black women had been allowed entrance.

Recognizing her intelligence, passion and perseverance, her supervising physicians gave her letters of recommendation.

It was in 1859 that the New England Female Medical College opened its doors to her. In the year of her admission, the United States had a total of 54,543 physicians. 180 were black men. There were 270 women, and all of them were white.

Rebecca Crumpler became the only African American woman to receive an MD in the United States in 1864.

She had her MD, but she was a black woman. She faced hostility, rudeness, and racism from the white male medical establishment. Although formally trained and licensed as were her male colleagues, hospitals denied her admitting privileges. And some pharmacies even refused to fill her prescriptions.

All the sexism, racism, and discourtesy did not stop Rebecca. She continued to practice medicine.

Medical officials blamed the high death rates in black communities on poor hygiene and racial inferiority. Bur Rebecca understood that the high death rates were due to socio economic influences on health, lack of good nutrition, poor housing conditions, contaminated food and water, and lack of medical care.

As Rebecca practiced, she kept a journal. She transformed it into “A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts.” Published in 1883, her book was a wealth of practical advice on maternal and child health.

Rebecca had written, “The more we understand our patients’ unique experiences and cultural backgrounds, the better we can tailor their treatment plans.”

No photos remain of this dedicated healer. An article in the Boston Globe described her as “59 or 60 years of age tall and straight, with light brown skin and gray hair.”

After her death, she was almost completely forgotten. Not even a headstone marked her grave. In 1980, a group of female black physicians formed the Rebecca Lee Society. Searching Fairview Cemetery grounds, they finally identified her grave. And so, in 2020, 125 years after her death a headstone was installed. On March 30, 2021, Governor Ralph Northrup of Virginia, himself a physician, declared that date as Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day.

Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler—no longer forgotten.

(EDITOR’S NOTE FROM GALAHAD, A COUSIN AND EDITOR FOR DOCTOR CURMUDGEON ON THE SIBERIAN HUSKY SIDE OF THE FAMILY: it should be noted that Dr. David Peck was the first black man to receive an MD in the United States. It was in 1847 that he graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago.)

Dr. Curmudgeon suggests “Bitter Medicine”, Dr. Eugene Eisman’s story of his experiences–from the humorous to the intense—as a young army doctor serving in the Vietnam War.
Bitter Medicine by Eugene H. Eisman, M.D. –on Amazon

Doctor Curmudgeon® is Diane Batshaw Eisman, M.D., a physician-satirist. This column originally appeared on SERMO, the leading global social network for doctors.
SERMO www.sermo.com

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