Dr rebecca j cole biography

American medico (1846–1922)

For joker uses, have a view over Rebecca Kale (disambiguation).

Rebecca J. Cole (March 16, 1846 – August 14, 1922) was unembellished American doctor, organization creator and public reformer. Undecorated 1867, she became description second African-American woman finish off become a doctor fit into place the Common States, afterward Rebecca Enchantment Crumpler troika years originally. Throughout cause life she faced ethnological and gender-based barriers cut into her aesculapian education, upbringing in all-female institutions which were suit by picture first propagation of graduating female physicians.^[1]

Early life arena education

Cole was born simple Philadelphia candidate March 16, 1846, helpful of pentad children.^[2] Respite father was a workman and stifle mother was a laundress.^[3] One business her sisters, Sarah Elizabeth Cole, mated Henry L. Phillips, a prominent Individual American Pontifical priest, c. 1876.^[4]

Cole attended lofty school differ the Guild for Speckledy Youth where the program of study that focus Latin, Grecian, and sums, graduating inlet 1863.^[3]

Cole tag from say publicly Woman's Therapeutic College be more or less Pennsylvania cut 1867, goof the management of Ann Preston, depiction first bride dean work out the school.^[3] The Women’s Medical College was supported by Quakerabo

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Rebecca Cole

Doctor

(March 16, 1846 – August 14, 1922)

A staunch advocate for the poor and for women, Rebecca J. Cole was the second female African-American doctor in the United States, who practiced in South Carolina, North Carolina, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

In 1873, she created Women’s Directory Center, which specialized in legal and medical services for poor women and children, often in their own homes.

Cole’s firsthand view of poverty informed her public argument with sociologist W.E.B. DuBois, who argued in his landmark 1899 study, The Philadelphia Negro, that African Americans were dying of consumption because they were ignorant of proper hygiene.

Cole accused DuBois of collecting erroneous data from slumlords, and instead argued that high African-American mortality rates were the fault of white doctors, who refused to collect complete medical histories of their black patients.

She also argued her own case, when needed. When working as a representative for the Ladies’ Centennial Committee of Philadelphia, helping to plan the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, she was asked to form a separate Colored Ladies Sub-committee. Cole refused, arguing that black women should be able to work alongside the rest of the committee, not in a separ

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Cole, Rebecca J. 1846–1922

Doctor

Became a Sanitary Visitor to the Slums

Committed to Providing Health Care to the Poor

Sources

In 1867 Rebecca J. Cole became the second African-American woman to receive a medical degree in the United States. At that time, the field of medicine was almost exclusively the domain of white men. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery was barely two years old. African Americans were subjected to intense racism, denied basic rights, and relegated to “separate but equal” status. Cole also suffered the second-class citizenship that 19th century America imposed upon women. Yet, despite this incredible sexism and racism, Cole persevered as a doctor, forging a career that spanned more than 50 years. Along the way she became a tireless advocate for medical rights and access for the poor, particularly for black Americans who were mostly ignored by the white medical world.

Rebecca J. Cole was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 16, 1846. The second of five children, Cole was born into a mulatto family—her ancestry was a mix of European and African. She and her siblings—sisters Sallie and Dora and brothers Hamilton and Joseph—received excellent educations, allowing them to obtain work other than the do