Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler
1831 – 1895
Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler was the first Black woman to earn a medical degree in the United States. A true
pioneer, she battled deep-seated prejudice against women and African Americans in medicine.
Dr. Crumpler earned a place at the New England Female Medical College (NEFMC) in 1860. The school was the first in the country to train women M.D.s. At the time, many men argued that women were too delicate or not intelligent enough to be doctors. Most medical schools barred Black students regardless of gender. The NEFMC initially trained women to work only as midwives, which reflected its founder Samuel Gregory’s belief that it was improper for male doctors to assist with childbirth. However by the time Dr. Crumpler attended, the curriculum had expanded to encompass a more complete medical education.
Crumpler was born in 1831 in Delaware, to Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber. An aunt in Pennsylvania, who spent much of her time caring for sick neighbors and may have influenced her career choice, raised her. By 1852 she had moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she worked as a nurse for the next eight years (because the first formal school for nursing only opened in 1873, she was able to perform such work without any formal training). In 1860, she was admitted to the New England Female Medical College. When she graduated in 1864, Crumpler was the first African American woman in the United States to earn an M.D. degree, and the only African American woman to graduate from the New England Female Medical College, which merged with Boston University School of Medicine in 1873.
In her Book of Medical Discourses, published in 1883, she gives a brief summary of her career path: “It may be well to state here that, 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 relieve the sufferings of others. Later in life I devoted my time, when best I could, to nursing as a business, serving under different doctors for a period of eight years (from 1852 to 1860); most of the time at my adopted home in Charlestown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts. From these doctors I received letters commending me to the faculty of the New England Female Medical College, whence, four years afterward, I received the degree of doctress of medicine.”
Dr. Crumpler practiced in Boston for a short while before moving to Richmond, Virginia, after the Civil War ended in 1865. 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. During my stay there nearly every hour was improved in that sphere of labor. The last quarter of the year 1866, I was enabled . . . to have access each day to a very large number of the indigent, and others of different classes, in a population of over 30,000 colored.” She joined other black physicians caring for freed slaves who would otherwise have had no access to medical care, working with the Freedmen’s Bureau, and missionary and community groups, even though black physicians experienced intense racism working in the postwar South.
“At the close of my services in that city,” she explained, “I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration.” She lived on Joy Street on Beacon Hill, then a mostly black neighborhood. By 1880 she had moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, and was no longer in active practice. Her 1883 book is based on journal notes she kept during her years of medical practice.
Personal life
While living in Charlestown, Rebecca Davis married Wyatt Lee, a Virginia native who was formerly enslaved. They were married on April 19, 1859. This was Wyatt’s second, and her first, marriage. A year later Wyatt’s son, Albert, died at age 7. This tragedy may have motivated Rebecca to begin her study of nursing for the next eight years. Rebecca was a medical student when her husband died of tuberculosis on April 18, 1863. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Boston.=
Dr. Rebecca Lee married Arthur Crumpler in Saint John, New Brunswick on May 24, 1865. Arthur was formerly enslaved and escaped bondage from Southampton County, Virginia. Born in 1824, he was the son of Samuel Crumpler, who was enslaved by Benjamin Crumpler. Arthur lived on the neighboring estate of a large landowner, Robert Adams, with his mother and siblings. When Adams died, his family was sold and nine-year-old Arthur was kept by Robert Adams’ son, John Adams of Smithfield, Virginia after Arthur won a wrestling contest with John on the day of the estate auction. Except for one sister, he never found out the whereabouts of the people who continued enslaving and “purchasing” his family members. He served with the Union Army at Fort Monroe, Virginia as a blacksmith, based on his training and experience. He went to Massachusetts in 1862 and was taken in by Nathaniel Allen, founder of the West Newton English and Classical School, also called the Allen School. On July 16, 2020, a ceremony was held at the Fairview Cemetery to dedicate a gravestone in memory of Rebecca Lee Crumpler and her husband Arthur. The granite stone was the result of a fundraising appeal spearheaded by Vicky Gall, president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library (Hyde Park Library).
Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler were active members of the Twelfth Baptist Church, where Arthur was a trustee. They had a home at 20 Garden Street in Boston. Their daughter Lizzie Sinclair Crumpler was born in mid-December 1870, but as no other records have been found, it is believed the child did not survive infancy. For instance, Crumpler and her husband Arthur lived in Hyde Park, Massachusetts in 1880, but they did not have a child living with them at that time.
Crumpler spoke at a funeral service for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner upon his death in 1874. She read a poem that she had written for him, where “she touchingly alluded to his love for the gifted Emerson.” By 1880, the Crumplers moved to Hyde Park, Boston.
Although no photographs or other images of Crumpler survive, a Boston Globe article described her as “a very pleasant and intellectual woman and an indefatigable church worker. Dr. Crumpler is 59 or 60 years of age, tall and straight, with light brown skin and gray hair.” About marriage, she said the secret to a successful marriage “is to continue in the careful routine of the courting days, till it becomes well understood between the two.”
Rebecca Crumpler died on March 9, 1895, in Fairview, Massachusetts, while still residing in Hyde Park. Arthur died in May 1910, and they are both buried at the nearby Fairview Cemetery. Rebecca and Arthur Crumpler were buried in unmarked graves for 125 years, until 2020, when they received granite headstones for their gravesite from donations. On July 16, 2020, a ceremony was held at the Fairview Cemetery to dedicate a gravestone in memory of Rebecca Lee Crumpler and her husband Arthur. The granite stone was the result of a fundraising appeal spearheaded by Vicky Gall, president of the Friends of the Hyde Park Library.
Legacy
The Rebecca Lee Society, one of the first medical societies for African-American women, was named in Crumpler’s honor. Her home on Joy Street is a stop on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail.
In 2019, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared March 30 (National Doctors Day) the Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler Day.
At Syracuse University there is a pre-health club named “The Rebecca Lee Pre-Health Society.” This club encourages people of diverse backgrounds to pursue health professions. They offer mentors, workshops, and resources to help members succeed