but she could strike — and strike hard

Susan McKinney Steward, the Brooklyn Women’s Hospital and more

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An 1870 portrait of Susan McKinney Steward, taken the year she graduated from medical school (image via the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

In 1870, Susan McKinney Steward graduated from the New York Medical College for Women. At just 24 years old, she was already making history. Once she crossed the graduation stage, she became the first Black woman doctor in New York State — and only the third in the country.