Brown, Dorothy L. (1919–2004)
Brown, Dorothy L. (1919–2004)
African-American physician and politician. Name variations: "D" Brown. Born Dorothy Lavinia Brown, Jan 7, 1919, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died June 13, 2004, in Nashville, Tennessee; dau. of an unmarried mother who left her in a Troy (NY) orphanage as an infant; Bennett College, BA, 1941; Meharry Medical College, MD, 1948; children: (adopted) Lola Cannon Redmon.
First African-American woman surgeon in the American South, spent a year as an intern at Harlem Hospital in New York City, but was denied a surgical residency because of gender; completed residency at Meharry (1954); practiced in Nashville, becoming a fellow of the American College of Surgery; later became attending surgeon at George W. Hubbard Hospital and professor of surgery at Meharry Medical College; at 40, became the 1st single woman in modern times to adopt a child in the state of Tennessee; was the 1st black woman to be elected to the lower house of Tennessee State Legislature (1966).
See also Women in World History.