African American Women in Pharmacy Firsts
1894
Ella A Coleman, Matilda Lloyd, and Margaret Miller
were the first known African American females to receive pharmacy degrees in the U.S. They each received the Ph.G. degree and graduated in the same class at the Meharry Pharmaceutical College.
1895
Susan J. Peters
the first African American female to graduate from Howard University College of Pharmacy, received the certificate in pharmacy (Phar.C.) in 1895.
1897
Pearl Rudolph Wassom
first African American female pharmacist to graduate from Shaw Leonard School of Pharmacy.
1897
Pauline S. Marrow
first African American female pharmacist in Victoria, Texas. She was a 1896 graduate of Meharry Pharmaceutical College.
1897
Julia Pearl Hughes
one of the first African American female pharmacy graduates from Howard University College of Pharmacy to receive the Doctor of Pharmacy degree (Phar.D).
1899
Julia Pearl Hughes
considered the first African American female pharmacist to become registered to practice pharmacy in the state of Pennsylvania and is considered the first to own a drug store in Pennsylvania and the U.S. She is also among the first women to become registered as a pharmacist in more than one state, namely Pennsylvania, District of Columbia, and Virginia.
1900
BeeBe Stevens Lynk
became the first African American female graduate from a pharmacy degree program to co-establish a health science institution of higher learning when she and her husband, Dr. Miles Vanderhurst Lynk, open the University of West Tennessee College of Physicians Surgeon in Jackson, Tennessee, and started awarding degrees in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing, and law.
1903
Camille O. Green, Minnie C. Moore
were the first African American females to graduate from the New Orleans University College of Pharmacy of Flint Medical College. Both became the first African American females to be award a pharmacy degree from a U.S. school in the state of Louisiana when they were awarded the Ph.C. degree in 1903.
1903
Beebe Stevens Lynk, Willie A. Stevens
Beebe Stevens Lynk and Willie Stevens, were the first African American females to graduate from the University of West Tennessee Department of Pharmacy with the Ph.C. degree.
1904
Camille O. Green, Beebe Stevens Lynk
were the first African American female pharmacy graduates to serve on the faculty of a College of Pharmacy. Camille O. Green served as Professor of Pharmacy at the New Orleans University College of Pharmacy of Flint Medical College from 1904-1908. Beebe Stevens Lynk, PhC, served as Professor of General and Medical Chemistry at the University of West Tennessee College of Physician and Surgeon and College of Pharmacy, 1904-1923.
1906
Julia Pearl Hughes
became the first known African American female pharmacists to form her own chemical company (Columbia Chemical Company, later started the Hair-Vim Chemical Company) to manufacture toiletries and black hair products for women.
1908
Hattie Hutchinson
was the first African American woman to graduate from Highland Park College (Des Moines, IA) Department of Pharmacy. When she graduated in 1908, Hattie Hutchinson became the first and only African American woman in the state of Iowa with a pharmacy degree, and the first female pharmacist to own a pharmacy when she opened a drugstore with her husband in Buxton, Iowa.
1908
Anna Louise James
was the first African American female to graduate from the Brooklyn College of Pharmacy (today Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy).
1909
Clara Smyth Taliaferro
early African American female pharmacist and the founding member and first President of the Tuesday Evening Club of Social Workers, which continues to be active today.
1909
Anna Louise James
became the first African American female to be licensed as a pharmacist in the state of Connecticut.
1909
Ida Hagan
first African American female to become registered as a pharmacist in the state of Indiana.
1911
Ruth Gardena Birnie, Camille O. Green-Mims
were among the first African American females to graduate from the Temple University College of Pharmacy with the Ph.G degree.
1912
Chesta Dillard Dean
in June 1912, was cited as the only African American female drug store owner in the city of Philadelphia (Julia P. Hughes was cited as the first in 1900).
1912
Ruth Gardena Birnie
became the first African American female, to open a drug store in South Carolina.
1912
Alice Augusta Ball
was the first known African American woman awarded the Ph.C. degree (1912) from the University of Washington College of Pharmacy. She later became one of the first to received B.S. degree in pharmacy from the University of Washington in 1914.
1913
Fannie C. Jamison, Florence Maye Burns
were the first African American females to be awarded a pharmacy degree (Ph.C.) from the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy.
1914
Julia Pearl Hughes
first African American female pharmacists to start and own a major newspaper. She co-founded the Washington Sun, which still exist today.
1915
Olive D. Howard
first African American female to graduate from the University of Minnesota School of Pharmacy.