Dorothy Lavinia Brown was born in 1919 in Philadelphia. Soon after, her mother placed her in a New York orphanage where she remained for the majority of her childhood. Brown graduated from Bennett College in 1941. After helping in the war effort, Brown enrolled at Meharry Medical College in 1944, and in 1948 she became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree in the South. Brown was chief of surgery at Riverside Hospital and was the first African American woman to be elected to the Tennessee General Assembly. She died in Nashville in 2004.
Dr. Dorothy Lavinia Brown
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Description
Dorothy Lavinia Brown was born in 1919 in Philadelphia. Soon after, her mother placed her in a New York orphanage where she remained for the majority of her childhood. Brown graduated from Bennett College in 1941. After helping in the war effort, Brown enrolled at Meharry Medical College in 1944, and in 1948 she became the first African American woman to receive a medical degree in the South. Brown was chief of surgery at Riverside Hospital and was the first African American woman to be elected to the Tennessee General Assembly. She died in Nashville in 2004.