Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, MD — general medicine
Courtesy Photographs and Prints Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations
In 1891, it was rare for any woman to become a board-certified physician, but when Halle Tanner Dillon (1864–1901) passed the Alabama State Medical Examination, even the New York Times took notice. While some southern newspapers had scoffed at the idea of a black woman even applying to take the exam, the Times noted that Johnson passed this “unusually severe” 10-day written exam to become “not only the first colored female physician, but the first woman of any race” to officially practice medicine in Alabama.
Read more about Dr. Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson.
