Changemaker 11: Rebecca Lee Crumpler

Today's changemaker is Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first African-American female physician in the US. Born in 1831 in Delaware, in the early 1850s, Crumpler worked as a nurse in Massachusetts before winning a scholarship to New England Female Medical College in 1860. The outbreak of the Civil War forced her to abandon her studies, but she was later able to return and graduate, becoming a physician at the Freedmen's Bureau. There, she helped emancipated slaves who did not have access to medical care.

 In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared March 30th (National Doctors Day) “Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day” in the Commonwealth. You can learn more about her here or here.

Photo credit: National Library of Medicine

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