Rebecca Crumpler already made history as the first Black woman to earn a medical degree. Considering the white opposition she faced at every step, this was quite a feat! But her toughest battle came on the heels of the Civil War.
Newly freed Black people struggled with massive rates of physical deformities and malnutrition because of the cruelties of enslavement. Whites even bragged that we were too weak for freedom and better off with enslavement – that we simply couldn’t exist without them! And there was another threat.
Smallpox. So many Black people died from the disease that white people even expected us to become extinct. But Crumpler, born a free woman, knew something that white doctors didn’t know.
The skills she learned from her aunt inspired her medical achievements – and taught her how to care for our people through even the worst sicknesses. Crumpler saved countless lives!
We know little about her life, including what she looked like. But to ensure our people received the best medical treatment possible in the future, we know she wrote two pioneering textbooks.
White people have used anything they can – even a pandemic – to justify our oppression. Crumpler’s dedication to our people and our health is EXACTLY how we fight against a system that continues to hurt and discriminate against us!