Carrie Jane Sutton Brooks (January 15, 1899 – January 12, 1964) was a pioneering African-American woman medical doctor who trained as a surgeon at

Howard University College of Medicine The Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) is an academic division of Howard University that grants the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Ph.D., M.S., and the M.PH. HUCM is located at the Howard University Health Sciences Center in Washington, D ...

. Brooks was born Carrie Jane Sutton in

San Antonio, Texas San Antonio ( ; Spanish for "Anthony of Padua, Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the List of Texas metropolitan areas, third-largest metropolitan area in Texa ...

, and was class valedictorian of Riverside High School. She then did undergraduate work at

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, before attending Howard University's medical school. She graduated there in the early 1920s and turned down a research fellowship to become one of the first black interns at the

Freedman's Hospital Howard University Hospital, previously known as Freedmen's Hospital, is a major hospital located in Washington, D.C., built on the site of Griffith Stadium, a former professional baseball stadium that served as the home field of the Washington ...

in Washington, D.C. She returned to San Antonio to practice medicine and helped establish the first YWCA for black people in her home town. She later married a fellow doctor, Joseph Hunter Brooks, and moved with him to Montclair, N.J., where they both practiced medicine. She died after a long illness and is buried in San Antonio.

References

1899 births 1964 deaths Howard University College of Medicine alumni Health professionals from San Antonio {{US-med-bio-stub