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Female Firsts: Susan Smith McKinney Steward · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stephane
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Never Told You production of iHeartRadio. And today is time
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for another female first, which means we are so happy
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: to be joined by the fabulous, the fantastic Eves.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Welcome Eve, thank you glad to be here again. Yes,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: we're so happy to have you. Know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I was thinking about this the other day. I'm pretty
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: sure this same date last year we recorded an episode
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: and I was wearing the same twitter because it's Life Day.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: But anyway, I've been thinking about the passage of time
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lately and how strange it feels. I'm pretty sure I
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: was the same time.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: You have a really good memory.
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Oh, she has a lot of traditions too, as a reminder,
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: generals like she does have a really good memory because
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: she doesn't remember stuff like this anyway. But it also
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: helps that this is life Day and this is what
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: she does every year on Life Day. No matter what, I'm.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Just pretty sure I remember explaining it to you last
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: year because we were like, is this what sweater? Is this? Anyway,
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. I'm excited to have you back.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: On Life Day, on the life.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: A very fortuitous life day. Indeed, I'm excited because last
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: time you were on, we were talking you've been on
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: with your friend and co host Katie from the podcast
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: on Team, and you sent Samantha and I these beautiful cards,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: like thank you cards, and they were so exciting to get.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: I can't tell you how I was like, Oh, this
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: is so cool.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. I'm glad you liked it. It's a refrigerator.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, nice, yes, no, so much appreciated. And we're
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: probably going to rehash on the stuff we were talking
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: about off mic, but we were talking about sending thank
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you cards and the kind of how nice it is
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: when you actually get a physical something the mail that
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: isn't joke mail or isn't something to make you.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So I was gonna I feel like I sound so old.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Oh those bills, embrace it. That stars early. Honestly, it's
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: not even an old thing. I mean the life with
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: the bills. Things starts happening pretty quickly, right, this is true.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: This is true.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: And you were talking about having a pin pal and
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: all of that stuff and having a friend that you
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: did that with, But can you can you talk about
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: that a bit more of your kind of thoughts experience
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: around the Britain.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I really like having a pin pal, And there's
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: something about the like because this was a person that
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I talked to semi regularly. So it's like saving the
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: things that you know are big to not till them
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: in like a text or a phone conversation and then wait,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: wait to hold it in the letter. So it's like
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: this kind of events building, or just like there's something
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: to me being able to access my friends all the time.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I can tell them things whenever I want to, I
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: can text them, I can send an emergency alert and
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: it's a second if I need them in any moment.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: So I'm so used to just being like if I
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: need to vent to them, if I really want to
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: tell them something juicy that just happened, like I can
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: do that right on the spot. So I feel like
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: with closer friends, there's something to having them be your
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: pimpals and holding back on that immediate conversation and the
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: gratification that comes with that. And then when it's strangers,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: there's something nice when it comes to divulging parts of
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: your personal life to somebody who you don't really know,
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: who's far away, and those things are contained in a
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  Speaker 2: piece of paper, So it feels more intimate because you
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: can't just send a text message. It doesn't feel like
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: you know the Feds are watching or you know they
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: can immediately send it to somebody else.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: It's like, it's just.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: In this letter, and I need to wait for however
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: long it takes them, And I don't know how long
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  Speaker 2: it's going to take them because I don't even have
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  Speaker 2: their number for them to send me a letter back.
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  Speaker 3: And when I get it, it's going to be like
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a Christmas present in the mail.
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  Speaker 4: It really, you know that That reminds me because I
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  Speaker 4: don't know. Did y'all all have the children's program in
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  Speaker 4: school where you had a pin pal, whether it's from
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  Speaker 4: the state or from a different country.
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  Speaker 3: I can't remember.
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  Speaker 4: I think my mind was from the States. But like
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  Speaker 4: not knowing when your next letter was coming in, and
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  Speaker 4: when it did, it was the best thing, and you
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  Speaker 4: had to take a moment to like run into your
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: spot to read and open that letter and hope it's
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: more than just the page.
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  Speaker 3: That's right.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I remember that moment.
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  Speaker 4: Now that you like talk about that, I'm like, oh yeah,
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  Speaker 4: because you never knew when it was coming and it
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: was very sad when it stopped, but it was very
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  Speaker 4: nice when you do get them, and it was a
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  Speaker 4: long letter talking about their life, and it was so
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: different and you're like wow, and then from Indiana.
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  Speaker 2: Did you immediately write back or did you wait a
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: minute to write back to them?
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  Speaker 4: I think I think I would always start the letter
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  Speaker 4: and then like go on and do something else, whether
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  Speaker 4: it's because someone was yelling at me or I had
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: to do chorge or leaving or homework, but then I
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  Speaker 4: would come back and then finish it out and hopefully
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  Speaker 4: would tell them different parts. Like one of my favorite
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: books is Pride and Prejudice, as well as of several others.
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  Speaker 4: But you know in the book, there's section where they're
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  Speaker 4: writing letters to each other. Obviously that's all they do,
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  Speaker 4: but one of them is her talking about you know, oh,
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  Speaker 4: this is happening this day, and then it pauses and
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: then there's like a different type of handwriting. Her handwriting
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  Speaker 4: is rushing to talk about the emergency they just had
• 5:32
  Speaker 4: and you know that this has been like a couple
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  Speaker 4: of hours. Wait, and when you see that difference, when
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: you know that that obviously took a break from writing
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: because they're talking about something else out of nowhere. That
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: was always fun to try to dissect. Oh, they must
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: have this must have happened during this moment type of thing,
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: and it was all in the same letter.
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  Speaker 3: It was always exciting.
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  Speaker 2: It's kind of like you were able to read into
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  Speaker 2: the gaps that were let.
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  Speaker 4: Oh, you're so close that just on paper, you knew
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  Speaker 4: what was going.
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  Speaker 1: On a pretty big trope in like the things I
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: have seen of rom coms, of like the letters exchange,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: not knowing who it is, maybe falling in love.
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  Speaker 4: There was a moment of like, if it's a guy,
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: maybe that's gonna be my new boyfriend.
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  Speaker 3: As that's how sad I was.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Yes, thank you, because I had a pinpal. I think
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: he was from South America somewhere. His name is Raoul,
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  Speaker 1: and I had a moment like in third grade that
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: me and Raul are gonna, you know, meet something amazing
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: what happened and we'd fall in love. But I was
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: also thinking too, my one of my best friends who's
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: still one of my best friends. We were neighbors growing up,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: and I we would write like five page letters to
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: each other, I think every Friday, and then we put
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  Speaker 1: like stickers on them and like those little jewel things,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: and we would put them in each other's mailbox and
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: then you go and get the letter that they'd write.
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  Speaker 1: Even though we saw each other like every day, but
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  Speaker 1: it would just be.
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  Speaker 3: Like, it's cute. I like it.
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  Speaker 1: It was really cute. It was so like I was
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  Speaker 1: excited about it. It was a fun thing that we did.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm glad. I agree. It's really fun, exciting surprise
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  Speaker 1: to get something like this, so we both really appreciated it.
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  Speaker 3: I'm glad.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: How has the podcast been going? How is it?
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: It's going really well.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: We're a couple of months into on theme now, and
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: we've talked about a lot of things that we've had
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: fun talking about and we're really excited about to talk about.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: So far.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: You know, we've been able to talk about horror and
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: magicians and the ways we feel like we're missing out
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: when we're watching things on tell vision versus how we
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: experience them in real life. We've talked about regret that
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: different black storytellers have had about their work when it
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: comes to the things that they're working on that are
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: related to race, and a bunch of things. So it's
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: going really well. I'm feeling good about the way We're
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: going to close out this year with on theme.
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: O Brandy and Cinderella.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: I was thinking about this yesterday because I know you're
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: coming on this show, and I was like, oh, yeah,
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: my Roman Empire. I do think it's a movie every day.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Now we have to do it. We have to do it.
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: It's a classic movie, and it just it's just it's
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: a request.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: It's it's a friendly request, just a friendly request.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: Well, now that people know about it, we have to
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: hold ourselves accountable.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: Yes, Well, I'm excited for that episode and I'm excited
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: for how how this year will close out. But in
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: the meantime, who did you bring for us to talk
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: about today? Eaves?
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  Speaker 2: So today we're going to talk about doctor Susan Smith
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  Speaker 2: McKinney Stewart. So we have talked about some women who
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: are in the medical field a few times on the show.
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  Speaker 2: And doctor Susan Smith McKinney Stewart was the first black
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  Speaker 2: woman physician in New York, but she was the third
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  Speaker 2: in the country.
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  Speaker 3: And so the two.
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  Speaker 2: Who were before her were Rebecca Lee Crumpler and the
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  Speaker 2: other woman was Rebecca J.
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  Speaker 3: Cole.
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  Speaker 2: So we've talked about in the past doctor Rebecca Lee Crumpler,
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  Speaker 2: who was the first black female physician in the US.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: We never did an episode on doctor Rebecca J. Cole,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: but everyone who's listening can go back and listen to
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: the episode about Rebecca Lee Crumpler, because that'll give you
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: a good amount of context on that first and about
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: all of the context around it. How difficult it was
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: for women who were getting into medica and at the time,
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: how oftentimes the men that were in their life, like
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: their fathers or their husbands, were the ones who had
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: to kind of help them get the m roads into
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: being able to be in the.
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  Speaker 3: Field in general.
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  Speaker 2: How some white women who were already invested in medical
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: fields were able to provide spaces where more women could
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: come into their institutions that they created to get their
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: own medical degrees, and then over time that ended up
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: being something that black women had some access to, although
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: it was still even in the doctor we're talking about today,
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: hard time difficult to get access to these institutions and
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: their resources to be able to even go to them
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: and afford them. But things slowly changed over time. Once
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: white women's first started being having access to be able
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: to participate in medical fields and then were able to
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: open institutions that could open it up to more women,
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: but it was still dependent upon what their own politics
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: were for who they let.
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  Speaker 3: Into these institutions.
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  Speaker 2: So we are in that realm today and talking about
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  Speaker 2: doctor Susan Smith McKinney Stewart.
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: But of course.
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  Speaker 2: Every woman that we talk about on the show is
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: important in her own right, has her own story, and
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: that story comes within the line of so many other
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: people before her. So just always important to acknowledge people
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: like doctor Rebecca Lee Crumpler and Rebecca J. Cole who
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: did similar things before the doctor we're talking about today
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: came along right absolutely. And I love how so many
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: of these stories in one way or the other that
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: you bring Eves. These histories intersects with each other, influenced
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: each other. So shall we get into the history here, yep.
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  Speaker 3: So we'll start at the beginning.
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  Speaker 2: When she was born in March of eighteen forty seven
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: in Brooklyn, New York, in the weeks Field neighborhood. So
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: she was the seventh of ten hield drin born to
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Ann and Sylvanus Smith. Her father was black and her
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: mother was mixed of Native American and French heritage, and
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: they were pork farmers and they did well for themselves.
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  Speaker 2: The farm was located on what is now Fullton Street
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: and Buffalo Avenue, and her family was pretty well to do.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: They were well accomplished and they were well resourced. Her
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: sisters and her parents really focused on education for their
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: children as well. Her sisters were a public school principal,
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: a teacher, a piano player, and a hairstylist. Those were
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: some of the occupations that her siblings have. And when
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: she was young, she learned to play the organ and
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: apparently the people who taught her to play the organ
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: were really well known and well respected organists in New York.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: So she had a good education when it came to that,
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  Speaker 2: and that was shown and that she later became choir
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: director and organist for her church in Brooklyn.
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  Speaker 3: And it said, there's not a ton of.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Information on her early life, her childhood, her upbringing, besides
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: the fact that her parents are well to do. They
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: had this farm, and her and her siblings were well educated.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: So it's not really a ton known on why she
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: even chose to go into the medical field. If the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: person that we're talking about themselves haven't said anything about
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: why they chose to go into that field, what their
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: impetus was for further pursuing whatever career we're talking about,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: or if there aren't any living people descendants left from
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: that person, and what they have to say about it.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: It's oftentimes a lot of surmising about why they chose
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: to get into the field. It suggested that she may
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: have chosen to go into the medical profession because two
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: of her brothers died during the Civil War and because
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: she witnessed a cholera outbreak that hit New York City
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: in eighteen sixty six. But based on the sources that
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: I've seen, this seems to kind of be an educated
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: guest based on just the known extent experiences in her life,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: and she doesn't ever seem to have documented herself saying
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: I chose to go into the medical field because of
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: the tragedies that I've seen in my life and how
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: medicine helped them. But you know, she was probably exposed
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: to a lot of things based on the way that
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: her parents educated her and her siblings, and through whatever
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: research or whatever way she was exposed to the medical field,
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: she might have gained her interest in it that way
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: because her parents were in the medical field either. But anyway,
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: of course, like we said, black women face barriers to
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: entry in medical training, and some of those things that
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: we saw come up previously in doctor Rebecca Crumpler's story,
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: we see come up in hers. It was difficult for
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: black women to get entry into medical training, in postgrad education,
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: into white male led medical institutions, into medical associations which
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of them didn't accept women at all, and
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: things like that. And once they stepped into those doors,
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: they were excluded in more ways and faced interpersonal acts
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: of discrimination. But doctor Susan Smith McKinney Stewart still went
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: in this direction, and the New York Medical College for
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: Women opened in November of eighteen sixty three. It was
• 15:24
  Speaker 2: founded by Clement's Sophia Harnett Lowsier. I think I'm pronouncing
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: that correctly, a wealthy white woman who was a physician
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: and an abolitionist. And though the school itself was only
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: for women's students, there were men on the faculty, and
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: to get in, the students had to be at least eighteen,
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: they had to have an approved certificate of good moral character,
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: a good English education, and some other requirements well as
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: we know, there's a lot of moralizing happening in certain
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: ways to also around marriage. When it came to women's
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: medical training, like it was a lot of things about
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: good matrimony, you know, the ultimate goal of women.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Being married. Anyway, that's another story.
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: She started going to the New York Medical College for
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: Women in eighteen sixty seven, and she and the other
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: students who attended sometimes had to do clinical work, so
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: sometimes she had to go to Bellevue Hospital, and her
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: school was all women's students, but when she would go
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: to this hospital, there would be male students there as well.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: And there's an article that talks about the hostility that
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: those students were met with when they would go to
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: this hospital. It said that the women were met with quote,
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: hisses in decent language, paper balls, and other missiles. But
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: she paid for her schooling on her own and through
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: her job teaching in the public school system, and she
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: ended up going to the medical college for three years.
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: And this is where her first comes in. In eighteen
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: seventy she got her medical degree from the New York
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: Medical College for Women and she was nominated to be valedictorian.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: So she did well in her schooling and that made
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: her the first black American woman to earn a medical
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: degree in New York State and the third to earn
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: one in all of the United States. And then she
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: began practicing medicine. She practiced in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: she specialized in prenatal care and childhood diseases.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: As we often see.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: With women at the time, they a lot of them
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: focused on treating women and children.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: She had black and white patients.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: And when it came to her personal life, in eighteen
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: seventy one, she married William G. McKinney, who was a minister,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: and she married him. That wasn't long after she left school.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: He owned a home in Weeksville and the two of
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: them had two children together, Anna and William, and she
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: went on to open a private practice in her home
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: there in Weeksville and became known for treating malnutrition and children.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: And from here her illustrious career in medicine continued. In
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: the early eighteen eighties, she taught at the New York
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Medical College for Women. In the late eighteen eighties, she
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: did some postcrap work at the Long Island Medical College Hospital,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: where she was the only woman physician and she was
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: an organizer and co founder of the Brooklyn Women's Homeopathic
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Hospital and Dispensary, which opened in eighteen eighty one. She
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: was a member of their staff until eighteen ninety five.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: So she practiced in Brooklyn from around eighteen seventy to
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: eighteen ninety five. And she was a member of the
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: King's County Medical Society and the New York State Homeopathic
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: Medical Society. So she did have two husbands in our lifetime.
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: In eighteen ninety her husband had a stroke and was paralyzed,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: and a few years later, in eighteen ninety four, her
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: husband ended up dying, and two years after that she
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: married Theophilis gold Stewart, who was an Army chaplain for
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the twenty fifth United States Colored Infantry Regiment. She traveled
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: across the country with him while he was preaching, and
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: they also traveled outside of the US, and she was
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: licensed and practiced medicine in places like Montana and Nebraska,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and apparently, according to some sources, in eighteen ninety seven,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: she traveled from Ohio to Haiti to help deliver or
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: witness the birth of her first grandson. So she was
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: a resident physician and she taught health and nutrition at
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: Wilberforce University in Ohio. Eventually, shortly after she began her
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: works there in the late eighteen nineties, her husband retired
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: from the army and he also began teaching there, and
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: she remained at Wilberforce until she died. Outside of her
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: medical work, she was socially involved. She cared about education herself,
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: missionary work, suffrage, and temperance, things that many women were
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: involved in the day. Not saying that those are all
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: issues that I rite for, but she was definitely socially
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: involved and seemed to be she was a meeting point
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: for some people, like she was a leader in terms
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: of the work that she was doing there in some ways.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: For instance, she and her sister Sarah Smith helped fundraisers
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: for the Women's Loyal Union. So the Women's Loyal Union
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: of New York and Brooklyn had this aim of uplifting
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: black women's social and political involvement. They were dedicated to
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: causes like anti lynching and suffrage, and for instance, there
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: was one time that she held an art exhibit at
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: her house to raise money for the union. So people
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: seem to have looked to her to be a leader
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: in these for these social causes as well. In nineteen eleven,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: she gave a presentation at the first Universal Race Congress
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: at the University.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: Of London in England.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: And in nineteen fourteen she gave a speech about women
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: in medicine at the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: convention in Ohio. And this speech was about women in
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: medicine across centuries. It was about how women have made
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: a name for themselves in medicine across the world and
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: over time, and it's worth looking back at those And
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: she also said that women only schools weren't necessary anymore
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: and coed was the way to go for equal opportunity,
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: which was something that a sentiment that was circulating at
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: the time once women started gaining more entry into women
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: only institutions. But yeah, So she died on March seventh
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: in nineteen eighteen, when she was seventy one years old,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: and W. E. B. Du Bois gave the eulogy at
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: her funeral, And in nineteen seventy four, Junior High School
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: in Brooklyn was named after her. So that was the
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: summary of her life. She is of course, after this point,
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: many more women gain into institutions and started becoming doctors.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: So it was kind of that transitional period and she
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: herself came after other women who like set the stage
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: for her.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: So that is her story.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, she once again, she did so much. I love
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: how there's so many pieces of her story, like the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: oregan playing, the teaching and having recognizing the people in
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: before her, but also like making space for the people
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: after her, which is something we talk about so much
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: on here, of that importance of paving the way for
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: more people to come into this and also yeah, w
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: E B. D. Boys speaks at your funeral. That's pretty Yeah,
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: that's something. Well, thank you as always, Eves for bringing
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: these stories to us with so much care and so
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: much nuance. We appreciate it every time.
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: I'm happy too, and we're always we're always happy to
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: have you, and we're happy to receive cards from you.
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: That's lovely. Where can the good listeners find you?
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: Y'all can find me on Instagram at not Apologizing. You
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: can also just go to my website Eves Jeffcote dot
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: com that spelled y V E S J E F
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: F C O A T dot com and you can
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: find me on many many other episodes of Stuff I've
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: Never Told You for the female first series talking about
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: other women in history from all over the world who
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: had first. And you can find me on Theme, a
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: podcast co hosted by me and Katie Mitchell talking about
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: black storytelling in all its forms.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, go do that listeners. If you have not already,
• 24:12
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• 24:15
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• 24:18
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• 24:20
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• 24:25
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• 24:28
  Speaker 1: our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya, and our
• 24:31
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