User:Breahmckay/Dorothy Lavinia Brown

Dorothy Lavinia Brown was the first African American Women to become a member of the American College of Surgeons. Her success in the medical field has paved the way for many other African American doctors to this day.

Brown was born in Philadelphia in 1919 on January the 7 and was taken an orphanage by her mother in Troy, New York. She grew up in this orphanage and soon went a school in Troy and lived with foster parents. During her schooling, she was top of her classes and had always wanted to be a doctor.

Many people during her journey of becoming a surgeon, didn't support her choices and though she'd be better off teaching, not wanting her to attend medical school. She overcame these challenges and forged her own path. After her work during WWII, she entered medical school at Meharry Medical College in Nashville Tennessee. Dr. Brown then did a one-year internship at Harlem Hospital and next she completed a five-year residency in general surgery at Meharry and Hubbard Hospital. In 1959, She became the first black female surgeon to become a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. In the mid-1950s Brown adopted a newborn daughter after an unmarried patient of hers pleaded her too. After this, Brown was known as the first single woman to adopt a child in the state of Tennessee.

Dr Brown is very well known from here work in the medical field and has "held membership or has been honored since 1959 by more than 100 organizations and institutions." She has been awarded many appreciation awards such as citizen of the year and women of the year.