African American Women in Pharmacy Firsts
1915
Alice Augusta Ball
became the first African American female pharmacy graduate to be awarded the Master of Science degree in Chemistry from the College of Hawaii (now the University of Hawaii). She later became the first and youngest female Acting Chair of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Hawaii.
1915
Rosamond Alice Guinn
was the first known African American woman to graduate from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and the first to become registered as a pharmacist in Southeastern Massachusetts. She was also one of eight women who found a club to support women pharmacy students, which later became the Lamba Kappa Sigma fraternity, which continues to thrive today.
1916
Ella Phillips Stewart (then Ella P. Myers)
was the first African American female to graduate with the Ph.G. degree from the University of Pittsburgh College of Pharmacy.
1916
Alice Augusta Ball
was the first pharmacy trained African American female and chemist to discover a method to isolate the ethyl esters of the fatty acids in the oil from the seeds of the chaulmoogra tree and making the oil soluble enough to be used as the first injectable treatment to lessen the symptoms of leprosy.
1917
Ada Pearl Bell
the first African American female to graduate with the Ph.C. degree from the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy.
1919
Rosamond Alice Guinn
among the early African American women pharmacist to be granted membership in the American Pharmaceutical Association (APhA) when she was inducted following two endorsements, a motion (#33), and vote of the APhA Membership Council on July 21, 1919.
1920
Anna Louise James
becomes the first African American female registered voter in the state of Connecticut, following the passage of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing all American women the right to vote.
1921
Lorena Suggs
was the first African American woman to graduate from the University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy. As a student, Lorena Suggs was also among the first African American women to compete in the first major women athletic track and field events sponsored by the Women’s Athletic Association (WAA) on the campus at the University of Iowa. She made history by placing first in two of the major track & field events, and second overall among the women.
1923
Beebe Stevens Lynk
was the first African American pharmacy educated female to serve as Dean of a health science institution. She served as Dean of the University of West Tennessee College of Physicians and Surgeon, which included the College of Pharmacy, in 1923.
1923
Efie Nevers
is the first known African American female to graduate from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (now the University of the Sciences).
1923
Alice M. Bunce
is the first African American female to graduate from the New Jersey College of Pharmacy (now Rutgers University, Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy).