Hey Y’all!!!!

I hope you guys have enjoyed your winter break and are winding back into school. With all that is continuing to happen in the world, personally, I know I’m always juggling a range of emotions. 

But this month of February is Black History Month! Black History Month is the annual celebration of the achievements by Black Americans and a time to recognize their critical role in the history of the United States. 

This is of course not meant to be the only time we celebrate the accomplishments of Black Americans, but rather an intentional time to highlight, promote, and reflect on their contributions. 

Black History Month takes us beyond the teachings of slavery and bondage; it allows us to observe the complexities of the lives of Black Americans. 

Throughout most of our life we are exposed to US History as an omniscient retelling of the past. Our history books are often presented to us like facts instead of historical interpretations. The common perception seems to be that authors are simply objective transcribers of their sources when in reality, historical renderings are very complex and pull from a variety of sources to come together to form a narrative. 

This difference is important to account for, because if we as the reader accept our history books as 100% true recollections of the past we are feeding into the silences. History writing isn’t a linear process; historians are constantly making choices of what to include what not to include, what to emphasize and who to credit etc. And because archives are not value neutral what gets saved disproportionately represents white men and privileged women. 

I want to dedicate this post to highlighting prominent black women in and around science and medicine. 

As I reflect on the contributions made by Black Americans, I am reminded of key figures within our own community who currently serve as firsts: 

Rebecca Lee Crumpler 

Better known as Rebecca Cole was the First Black Woman Doctor in the United States. She’s broken barriers and paved the way for millions of young black women to follow in her footsteps. This one hit’s close to home because she attended the New Englands Womens Medical College in Pennsylvania and went on to receive a medical degree. Rebecca had a passion for treating underserved populations. Not long after the end of the Civil War, she opted to go to Richmond, Virginia, to provide care to freed slaves. 

She was a pioneer, met with habitual racism and sexism. She practiced medicine for fifty years but few records survive to tell her story, and no images of her remain. She now lies in an unmarked grave in Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Patricia Bath MD. 

Patricia was the first black female physician awarded a patent for a medical invention. Patricia Bath attended Howard University College of Medicine in WashingtonD.C.  and matched at HarlemHospital in New York City for her residency program  from 1968 to 1969. She completed a fellowship in ophthalmology at Columbia University and went on to invent a new device and technique for cataract surgery known as laserphaco. The Laserphaco Probe uses a system of lasers, suction, and irrigation to remove the affected lens & replace it with an artificial lens that won’t deteriorate over time. This combination of technology provides a non-invasive, as well as an almost-permanent, solution to cataracts. She was the first woman appointed chair of ophthalmology at a U.S. medical institution (UCLA). 

Dr. May Edward Chinn

She was the first African-American woman to graduate from NYU School of Medicine, first African-American woman to intern at Harlem Hospital AND the first woman allowed to ride in the hospital’s ambulance during an emergency call. 

At a time when Black doctors were barred from completing hospital residencies and black patients were denied medical treatment, Chinn opened her own private practice in New York. There she worked on cancer detection and was also awarded membership into the New York Academy of Sciences in 1954.

Alexa Irene Canady, MD 

Alexa Irene Canady, MD: We have a lot to learn from Doctor Canaday. Alexa nearly dropped out of college due to a crisis of self-confidence and imposter syndrome. She was faced with numerous accounts of bigotry and sexism in her matriculation to higher education but ultimately went on to achieve dramatic success in medicine. In 1981, she became the first black neurosurgeon in the United States, and just a few years later, she rose to the ranks of chief of neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Closing thoughts:

These trail blazers paved the way for a new generation of women and girls in science. Through this blog post I want people to see that their stories are valuable and that you don’t have to be this internationally renowned figure to do great things. There are many amazing women whose story and legacy has been (whether intentionally or not) erased from the collective narrative. We must do our part in filling those gaps in. We must  be attentive to the ways in which race is situated within history and implement initiatives to encourage historians to answer some of these thought provoking questions about the silences that arise within our current system of gathering and retelling history. There are so many women in science whose names should be household names but just aren’t and we must ask ourselves why.