Rebecca Cole
Rebecca J. Cole (Filadelfia, 16 marzo 1846 – Filadelfia, 14 agosto 1922) è stata un medico statunitense, fondatrice di organizzazioni e riformatrice sociale. Nel 1867 divenne la seconda donna afroamericana a diventare medico negli Stati Uniti, dopo Rebecca Lee Crumpler tre anni prima. Per tutta la vita ha affrontato barriere razziali e di genere nella sua formazione medica, formandosi in istituti interamente femminili, gestiti dalla prima generazione di medici donna laureati[1].
Primi anni di vita e formazione
Cole was born in Philadelphia on March 16, 1846, one of five children.[2] Her father was a laborer and her mother was a laundress.[3] One of her sisters, Sarah Elizabeth Cole, married Henry L. Phillips, a prominent African American Episcopal priest, ca. 1876.[4]
Cole attended high school at the Institute for Colored Youth where the curriculum that included Latin, Greek, and mathematics, graduating in 1863.[3]
Cole graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1867, under the supervision of Ann Preston, the first woman dean of the school.[3] The Women’s Medical College was founded by Quaker abolitionists and temperance reformers in 1850. Initially named the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, it was the first school to offer formal medical training to women with the culmination of an M.D.[5] Cole's graduate thesis was titled The Eye and Its Appendages.[6] In her senior year, Cole lived with fellow medical students Odelia Blinn and Martha E. Hutchings. Nearly thirty years later, Blinn wrote an article detailing how crossing the 'color line' in Philadelphia nearly derailed Cole's studies at the college and her plans for a medical career.[7]
Carriera
After earning her medical degree, Cole interned at Elizabeth Blackwell's New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children, where she was assigned to teach prenatal care and hygiene to women in tenements.[8] Blackwell described Cole as "an intelligent young colored physician [who] carried on this work with tact and care."[3]
Cole later briefly practiced medicine in South Carolina before returning to Philadelphia.
In 1873, Cole opened a Women's Directory Center with Dr. Charlotte Abbey, which provided medical and legal services to disadvantaged women and children. In January 1899, Cole was appointed superintendent of a home run by the Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children in Washington, D.C.[9] The association's 1899 annual report stated that Cole possessed "all the qualities essential to such a position-ability, energy, experience, tact." A subsequent report noted that:[10]
Cole practiced medicine for fifty years. In 2015, she was chosen as an Innovators Walk of Fame honoree by the University City Science Center, Philadelphia.[12]
Morte
Cole died on August 14, 1922, at the age of 76. She is buried at Eden Cemetery in Collingdale, Pennsylvania.[13] Few records or photos of her have survived.[3]
Note
- ^ (EN) Darryl Lyman, Great African-American Women, Middle Village, NY, J David, 2005, p. 279, ISBN 978-0-82460-459-2.
- ^ (EN) Rebecca J. Cole (1846-1922) •, su blackpast.org, 17 novembre 2007.
- ^ a b c d e (EN) The Woman Who Challenged the Idea that Black Communities Were Destined for Disease, su smithsonianmag.com.
- ^ Archdeacon Henry L. Phillips Ninth Rector (1912-1914), su aecst.org.
- ^ "An Eventful Epoch in the History of Your Lives", in American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, n. 3, March 2004, p. 367, DOI:10.2105/ajph.94.3.367.
- ^ Women Physicians: 1850s - 1970s: The eye and its appendages, su xdl.drexelmed.edu, Drexel University College of Medicine. URL consultato il 23 febbraio 2013.
- ^ The Color Line in 1867, The Inter Ocean, May 18, 1896, p. 12.
- ^ Janice P. Nimura, The doctors Blackwell : how two pioneering sisters brought medicine to women--and women to medicine, New York, N.Y., 2021, ISBN 978-0-393-63554-6.
- ^ A Shining Thread of Hope, First, New York, NY, Broadway Books, 1998, 163, ISBN 0-7679-0111-8.
- ^ Thirty-seventh annual report of the National Association for the Relief of Destitute Colored Women and Children, for the year ending January, 1900 ..., su loc.gov.
- ^ https://www.loc.gov/item/91898495/
- ^ Science Center: Celebrating Women Innovators in 2015 Class of the Innovators Walk of Fame, su upenn.edu. URL consultato il 30 January 2017.
- ^ Library Exhibits :: Rebecca Cole, su exhibits.library.villanova.edu.
Collegamenti esterni
- (EN) Rebecca Cole, su African American Registry.
| Controllo di autorità | VIAF (EN) 34108745 · ISNI (EN) 0000 0000 4622 3761 · LCCN (EN) no2001060124 |
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