Susan McKinney Steward

Susan McKinney Steward

Born Susan Maria Smith
March 1847
Crow Hill, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Died 7 March 1918(1918-03-07) (aged 71)
Wilberforce, Ohio, USA
Nationality United States
Fields Pediatrics, homeopathy
Institutions Brooklyn Women's Homeopathic Hospital and Dispensary
Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People
Women's Hospital and Dispensary
Wilberforce University
Alma mater New York Medical College

Susan Maria McKinney Steward (March 1847 - 7 March 1918) was an American physician and author. She was the third African-American woman to earn a medical degree, and the first in New York state.[1]

Contents

Biography

She was born on March 1847 as Susan Maria Smith to Anne and Sylvanus Smith, in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Her sister Sarah J. Garnet was the first African-American female school principal in the New York City public school system.[2][3][4]

She played the organ at Siloam Presbyterian Church and the Bridge Street African Methodist Episcopal Church.[5]

She taught school in Washington, D.C., and New York City then attended medical school at the New York Medical College for Women starting in 1867 and graduated as valedictorian in 1869.[6]

In 1871 she was married to Reverend William G. McKinney from South Carolina. They had two children and he died in 1894. In 1896 she remarried to United States Army Buffalo Soldier and chaplain Theophilus Gould Steward. She moved with him to Montana, Nebraska and Texas.[7]

By 1906 both found positions at the AME's Wilberforce University in Ohio, where she worked as college physician.

In 1911 she attended the Universal Race Congress in London, where she delivered a paper entitled Colored American Women.

She died on March 7, 1918 at Wilberforce University. She was interred at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York.

Legacy

References

  1. ^ Sylvain Cazalet (ed.) (2001). "Biography of Susan Smith McKinney Steward (1848-1919)". History of the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women. http://www.homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 
  2. ^ Michael, Pollak (12 September 2009). "FYI: Pioneering Principals". The New York Times (New York, New York: The New York Times): pp. MB10. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/nyregion/13fyi.html. Retrieved 13 March 2010. 
  3. ^ "Who Were the Women who made up the Suffrage Movement?". University of Louisville Women's Center website. Louisville, Kentucky: University of Louisville. 2008. http://louisville.edu/womenscenter/suffrage-history. Retrieved 1 March 2010. 
  4. ^ MacDonald, Meg Meneghel (2007-2009). Garnet, Sarah J. Smith Tompkins (1831-1911). Washingtone Stat: BlackPast.org. http://www.blackpast.com/?q=aah/garnet-sarah-j-smith-tompkins-1831-1911. Retrieved 12 March 2010. 
  5. ^ Gardner, P.; Glueck, G. (1991). Brooklyn: People and Places, Past and Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0810931184. http://www.c21thesharrieffgroup.com/Neighborhoods.html. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 
  6. ^ "Susan McKinney Steward biography". Women in History. 2008. http://www.lkwdpl.org/WIHOHIO/stew-sus.htm. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 
  7. ^ Steward, T.G. (1920). Fifty Years in the Gospel Ministry. Philadelphia: A.M.E. Book Concern. OCLC 24557286. http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/steward/steward.html. Retrieved 2008-11-18. 

External links