Tag: African American surgeons

Dr. Matthew Walker Sr., M.D. (GW021)

(December 7, 1906 – July 15, 1978)

from The Greenwood Project

Dr. Matthew Walker is said to have trained more black surgeons – as many as half of those practicing at the time he died – than anyone else in the world. The son of a Pullman porter, he worked his way through New Orleans (later Dillard) University and graduated from Meharry Medical College with honors (1934), also studying at Howard University and the Mayo Clinic. He was a diplomat of the American Board of Surgeons, a fellow of the International College of Surgeons (1947), and a member of many other professional organizations. A former president of the National Medical Association, he received their distinguished service award in 1959. Walker taught surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, and pathology at Meharry, and, against the advice of his colleagues, welcomed Dr. Dorothy L. Brown and other women into the surgical residency program. The Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Centers, honoring his name and his philosophy, continue to provide health care for the poor and uninsured of all races.

Dr. Matthew Walker Sr. (Photo from Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame)


The Greenwood Project is a series of 160-word biographies of individuals who lie at rest in Mt. Ararat and Greenwood cemeteries, two historic African American burial grounds in Nashville, Tennessee. The project, which began in September 2014 (and is still available on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064806156276), shares the stories of more than 300 consequential individuals, primarily African American, who changed the course of city, state, and national history through their words and deeds. (All biographies were written by Kathy Lauder unless otherwise noted.)

Dorothy Lavinia Brown (GW017)

(January 7, 1919 – June 13, 2004)

from The Greenwood Project

Although abandoned by her mother and raised in foster homes, Dorothy Brown became valedictorian of her high school graduating class. However, she could not afford college until a Methodist women’s group for whom she worked as a housekeeper paid her tuition at Bennett College. She graduated with honors, then worked in a defense plant to earn money for medical school, entering Meharry in 1944. After the Harlem hospital where she interned denied her a surgical residency, she convinced Meharry surgical chief Matthew Walker to allow her a residency in Nashville. In 1954 Brown became the first African American female surgeon in the South when she was named attending surgeon at Hubbard Hospital, chief of surgery at Riverside, and professor of surgery at Meharry. In 1956 she became the first single woman in Tennessee to adopt a child, and in 1966 she won a seat in the Tennessee House, becoming the first African American woman to serve in the state legislature.

Dr. Dorothy L. Brown, M.D. (Department of Interior photo, public domain)

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The Greenwood Project is a series of 160-word biographies of individuals who lie at rest in Mt. Ararat and Greenwood cemeteries, two historic African American burial grounds in Nashville, Tennessee. The project, which began in September 2014 (and is still available on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064806156276), shares the stories of more than 300 consequential individuals, primarily African American, who changed the course of city, state, and national history through their words and deeds. (All biographies were written by Kathy Lauder unless otherwise noted.)