JAMES DURNHAM

James Durham was one of the first African-American doctors in the United States. Born a slave in Philadelphia, his early enslavers taught him basic reading and writing. Durham was owned by a number of doctors, ending up in New Orleans with a Scottish Physician who hired him in 1783 to perform medical services. He moved back to his hometown and his work was praised by many prominent local doctors. Durham returned to New Orleans and had a flourishing practice until 1801, when the city restricted his practice because he was unlicensed and untrained.

LOUIS CHARLES ROUDANEZ

Louis Charles Roudanez was an African-American Creole of color physician, civic leader, and news publisher. Born in St. James Parish, Louisiana he was the son of a French merchant and a free woman of color. Roudanez was educated in France, like many young men of color; he received his medical degree from the University of Paris in 1853 and a second medical degree in 1857 from Dartmouth. He returned to New Orleans and began a medical practice open both to Blacks and Whites. Louis Roudanez died in 1890.

REBECCA COLE

Rebecca J. Cole was the first Black woman to graduate from the Woman's Medical College in Pennsylvania. From 1872-1881, the administration appointed Cole as a resident physician at the New York Infirmary for Women and Children a hospital owned and operated. Dr. Cole worked with Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first white American woman physician to receive a medical degree. In 1873, with assistance from fellow woman physician Charlotte Abbey, Dr. Rebecca Cole started a Women's Directory Center to provide medical and legal services to destitute women and children in Philadelphia. Rebecca Cole died in 1922.