In honor of Juneteenth, VBCF would like to highlight some African American medical pioneers and their roles in the field of cancer and in the state of Virginia. Thanks to these men, women, and institutions, medical advances have been made and continue to be made. Without their contributions, medical care would likely not be what it is today. Their influential contributions have had profound impacts in their respective fields.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831-1885)
When Rebecca Lee Crumpler graduated from New York Medical College in 1864, Crumpler was the first Black woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, and the only Black woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College.
Dr. Crumpler first practiced in Boston before moving to Richmond, Virginia in 1865, directly after the Civil War ended. Richmond, she felt, would be “a proper field for real missionary work, and one that would present ample opportunities to become acquainted with the diseases of women and children.”
Her book, Book of Medical Disclosures, was published in 1883, and was one of the first medical books published by an African American.
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_73.html
Jane Cooke Wright (1919-2013)
Dr. Jane Cooke Wright graduated with honors from New York Medical College in 1945 and in 1949 she began working with her father, Dr. Louis Wright, director of the Cancer Research Foundation at Harlem Hospital.
In their work together, the Drs. Wright began testing a new chemical on leukemias and lymphatic cancers in humans, part of the origin story of chemotherapy. Following Dr. Louis Wright’s death in 1952, Dr. Jane Wright was appointed head of the Cancer Research Foundation, at the age of 33. Through her work, Dr. Jane Wright aided in establishing chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer, which was largely experimental at the time. These efforts have ultimately saved thousands of lives.
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Dr. Wright to the President’s Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke, which led to the creation of a national network of treatment centers for these diseases.
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_336.html
Roselyn Epps (1930-2014)
Dr. Roselyn Epps graduated with honors from Washington, D.C.-based Howard University College of Medicine in 1951. Dr. Epps focused her career on women’s health and public health issues in underserved communities, leading to her serving as the first Black president of the American Medical Women’s Association in 1974 and serving as a scientific program administrator at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Epps wrote over 90 articles in peer-reviewed journals.
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_102.html
Joycelyn Elders (1933-)
Dr. Joycelyn Elders served as the first Black person and second woman to serve as the United States Surgeon General. Elders grew up in Arkansas and didn’t even see a doctor until she was 16. The formative experience in choosing her career path was when she heard Dr. Edith Irby Jones, the first Black person to attend University of Arkansas medical school, speak at a sorority event in college. After this event, Elders decided to become a doctor, because she was able to see that it was possible for her. Representation matters.
https://cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_98.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joycelyn-Elders
Howard University
In 1868, three years after the end of the Civil War, the Howard University College of Medicine was established. Newly freed Black people were migrating to the nation’s capital in large numbers. The founders of the College recognized that they could meet the health care needs of this population, and Black communities across the country, by training future physicians to become highly competent, compassionate practitioners who would focus their careers on medically underserved communities. The Howard University College of Medicine continues this mission to this day.
https://medicine.howard.edu/about-us
Below, we compiled a short list of additional historical resources and current Black medical pioneers, because history is still being made. This is far from a comprehensive list of Black people and institutions who have made and are making a significant impact on medical history, but we wanted to focus on women and institutions that made an impact in Virginia and in cancer. What other Black pioneers of medicine are you familiar with? Who is doing great work right now that we should know about? Leave a comment or send an email to our Education Manager, Erin Steigleder, at erin@vbcf.org.
Historical Resources
- Black History Month: A Medical Perspective–Duke University
- The Flexner Report, the reason why most Black medical schools were closed in early 20th century
Current Pioneers
- Dr. Robert Winn, Director of VCU Massey Cancer Center, currently the only Black director of a federally-qualified cancer center
- Dr. Lisa Newman, Director of the Breast Program at the Weill Cornell Medicine-New York Presbyterian Hospital Network, Founding Medical Director of the International Center for the Study of Breast Cancer Subtypes
