"Outstanding services to negro health": Dr. Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, Dr. Virginia M. Alexander, and Black Women physicians' public health activism

V.N. Gamble

American Journal of Public Health, 2016, vol. 106, issue 8, 1397-1404

Abstract: An examination of the lives and careers of physician-activists Dorothy Boulding Ferebee (1898-1972) and Virginia M. Alexander (1899-1949) demonstrates how Black physicians in the first half of the 20th century used public health to improve the health of Black Americans and provides insights into the experiences of Black women physicians. I discuss their professional and personal backgrounds and analyze their divergent strategies to address health inequities. Ferebee used her leadership in Black women's organizations to develop public health programs and become a national advocate for Black health. Alexander, a Quaker, used her religious connections to urge Whites to combat racism in medicine. She also conducted public health research and connected it to health activism. Both were passionate advocates of health equity long before it gained prominence as a major public health issue. An analysis of their work illuminates past efforts to improve the health of Black Americans. © 2013 American Public Health Association.

Keywords: African American; career; Caucasian; female; female physician; health equity; human; human experiment; leadership; organization; public health; Quaker; racism; female physician; history; public health, African Americans; Female; History, 20th Century; Humans; Leadership; Physicians, Women; Public Health; Racism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2016.303252_8

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2016.303252

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