U.S. National Institutes of Health

Dorothy Lavinia Brown, MD — surgery

Courtesy Dorothy Lavinia Brown, MD

Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown (1919–2004) spent her childhood in an orphanage and grew up to become the first African American woman surgeon in the South, eventually being made chief of surgery at Nashville’s Riverside Hospital. She was also the first African American woman to be made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Read more about Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown.

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