In the 1940s, surgery was not a real career option in the South for an African-American female. The person who broke that glass ceiling was Dr. Dorothy Brown. Born in Philadelphia in 1919, Brown was placed in an orphanage in New York until she was 13 years old. Her mother reclaimed Brown at that age, but Brown ran away five times, each time returning back to the orphanage, where she felt comfortable. She was placed in a foster home at the age of 15 and enrolled in Troy High School. Her foster parents were Lola and Samuel Wesley Redmon. They became a major influence in Dorothy Brown’s life, a source of security, support and enduring values.
Brown graduated from high school at the top of her class in 1937 and was awarded a four-year scholarship to Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1947, graduating second in her class. Brown had always wanted to become a physician and enrolled in Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in 1948.
After an internship at Harlem Hospital, she set her goal for a surgery residency in the South, where there were no African-American women in general surgery. Brown was accepted into a five-year surgery residency program at Meharry and George W. Hubbard Hospital. She withstood many obstacles and became an assistant professor of surgery and the first African-American woman to be made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. From 1957 to 1983, Brown served as the chief of surgery at Nashville’s Riverside Hospital and clinical professor of surgery at Meharry Medical College.
There are other “firsts” associated with Brown. She became the first single mother to adopt a baby in Tennessee. In 1966, she ran for and won a seat in the state legislature, becoming the first African-American female to serve on that legislative body.
Among her many honors is the naming of the Dorothy L. Brown Women’s Residence at Meharry College. The Carnegie Foundation awarded her a humanitarian award, and she received the Horatio Alger Award. She considered herself a role model, not so much for all the things she accomplished, but proving to young people that they can succeed no matter what challenges they face in life.
