Rachel Boone Keith (May 30, 1924 – January 4, 2007) was an American physician, born in Liberia.

Early life

Rachel Hannah Celestine Boone was born to American Baptist medical missionaries Clinton Caldwell Boone and Rachel Allen Tharps Boone, in

Monrovia, Liberia Monrovia () is the administrative capital and largest city of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2022 census had 1,761,032 residents, home to 33.5% of Liberia’s total population. It ...

. She was raised in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

, where she graduated from Armstrong High School in 1938; that year she moved to Rhode Island to live with an aunt, physician Bessie B. Tharps. She graduated from

Houghton College Houghton University is a Private university, private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York, United States. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.Boston University School of Medicine The Boston University School of Medicine (formally the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine) is the medical school of Boston University, a private university, private research university in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in ...

in 1949. Boone completed further medical training at

Harlem Hospital Harlem Hospital Center, branded as NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem, is a 282-bed, public teaching hospital affiliated with Columbia University. It is located at 506 Lenox Avenue in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City and was founded on April 18, 1887. ...

and at Coney Island Hospital. She moved to Detroit in 1951.

Career

Boone worked two years at

Detroit Receiving Hospital Detroit Receiving Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, is the state's first Level I Trauma Center. Receiving's emergency department treats more than 105,000 patients annually, and nearly 60% of Michigan's emergency physicians are trained at Receiving ...

, and joined the staff at Detroit Memorial Hospital in 1954, had a private internal medicine practice for many years, and served on the Michigan Board of Medicine, and was active with the Detroit chapter of the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

and other organizations. She was also a prominent member of Detroit's Tabernacle Baptist Church. She and Judge Keith were guests at Detroit's Bal Africain, an art benefit event, in 1973, including dinner with the Tanzanian ambassador,

Paul Bomani Paul Lazaro Bomani (January 1, 1925 – April 1, 2005) was a Tanzanian politician and ambassador to the United States and Mexico. Biography Paul Bomani was born in 1925 in Ikizu, Mara Region. He served as the Minister of Finance, Agri ...

Personal life and legacy

In 1953, Rachel Boone married a lawyer,

Damon Keith Damon Jerome Keith (July 4, 1922 – April 28, 2019) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Dist ...

, who became a noted federal judge. They had three daughters: Cecile, Debbie, and Gilda. Rachel Boone Keith died in 2007, aged 83 years, in Detroit. Congressman

John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. Conyers was the sixth-longest serving member of Congress and the lo ...

gave a tribute to Keith in the ''

Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Ind ...

'' soon after her death. Later that year, she was honored posthumously with a LifeLine Award from the

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 375 programs. It is Michigan's third-l ...

School of Nursing. Her papers are held, along with her husband's, in the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University. There is a Rachel Boone Keith Prize Fund at the Boston University School of Medicine, to provide support for African-American women medical students at the school.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Keith, Rachel Boone 1924 births 2007 deaths American expatriates in Liberia 20th-century American women physicians 20th-century American physicians Boston University School of Medicine alumni Houghton University alumni 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American physicians 21st-century African-American physicians 21st-century American physicians 21st-century African-American women