Born: 1866, United States
Died: 11 May 1905
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Sarah Garland Boyd
The following is shared from the Encyclopedia Virginia, in line with the Creative Commons licensing.
Sarah Garland Boyd Jones became the first African American woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board’s examination. Jones grew up among Richmond‘s Black elite and became a teacher upon graduating from Richmond Colored Normal School. She entered Howard University’s medical school in 1890 and earned her medical degree three years later. Jones established a successful practice in Richmond. She and her physician husband helped create a medical association for Virginia’s African American doctors, and the pair opened their own small hospital. She died of active cerebral congestion at her Richmond home on May 11, 1905. In 1922, the Sarah G. Jones Memorial Hospital, Medical College and Training School for Nurses (later Richmond Community Hospital) was named in her honor.
Boyd was born in February 1866 in Albemarle County and was the daughter of Ellen D. Boyd and George W. Boyd, a builder. The family moved to Henrico County late in the 1860s and then to Richmond, where her father became a well-known contractor who constructed, among other notable buildings, Sixth Mount Zion Baptist Church and the large hall of the Grand Fountain United Order of True Reformers. Sallie Boyd, as she was known in her youth, attended the Richmond Colored Normal School with fellow students John Mitchell Jr. and Maggie Lena Mitchell (later Walker). After graduating in 1883, Boyd became a teacher at Baker School in the city, where she taught alongside pioneering educator Rosa L. Dixon Bowser and the poet Daniel Webster Davis. She remained on the faculty for five years and on July 4, 1888, married another fellow teacher, Miles B. Jones. They had no children.
In 1890, Sarah Jones began studying medicine at Howard University, in Washington, D.C. She received her MD in 1893 and on April 27 of that year became the first African American woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board’s examination (the first white woman had passed in 1890). One of eighty-six applicants who appeared before the board that day, she received her highest scores in surgery, practice, and hygiene. Jones established her practice in Richmond and offered a one-hour free daily clinic for women and children. Throughout the decade, Richmond’s African Americans suffered a mortality rate nearly twice that of white residents, and Black women suffered a disproportionate number of stillbirths. During the 1890s, Jones was one of only three female physicians and about half a dozen African American physicians in the city.
In 1893, Jones became the medical examiner for the female members of the Southern Aid and Insurance Company, which touted itself as the only such company to recognize female doctors. In 1897, she also served as the medical examiner for the recently organized Woman’s Corner Stone Beneficial Association. Concerned about the availability of professional medical care within Richmond’s African American community, Jones lectured at the nurses’ training school operated by the Woman’s Central League of Richmond, which had been established by physician Robert Emmett Jones in 1899 to train women in a variety of professions.
Because African American physicians were not yet welcome in the medical societies of white physicians, on February 19, 1902, Jones and her husband, who had earned his MD from Howard University the previous year, helped establish the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Richmond. Recognizing the need for additional medical facilities available to African Americans, several members of the society, including Jones and her husband, organized the Richmond Hospital Association in October 1902. The association purchased a house on East Baker Street, where it opened a hospital for Black patients in February 1903 and a school to train nurses scheduled to begin a month later. The hospital had rooms for twenty-five patients and a charity ward with sixteen beds. In March 1905, it became the Richmond Hospital Association and Medical College, and Training School for Nurses, Incorporated.
Jones established a successful practice in which she treated both Black and white patients. She and her husband owned a large brick house in Jackson Ward, and she was noted for her team of horses. In April 1905, Jones became ill after caring for a patient. She died of active cerebral congestion at her Richmond home on May 11, 1905. Following a funeral attended by hundreds of Richmonders, she was buried in the city’s Evergreen Cemetery. In 1922, the Sarah G. Jones Memorial Hospital, Medical College and Training School for Nurses (Richmond Community Hospital after 1945) was named in her honor.
TIMELINE
February 1866: Sarah Garland Boyd is born in Albemarle County, the daughter of Ellen D. Boyd and George W. Boyd.
Late 1860s: Sarah Garland Boyd moves to Henrico County and then to Richmond.
1883: Sarah Garland Boyd graduates from the Richmond Colored Normal School, which she attended with fellow students John Mitchel Jr., and Maggie Lena Mitchell (later Walker).
1883: Sarah Garland Boyd becomes a teacher at Baker School in Richmond, where she teaches alongside the pioneering educator Rosa L. Dixon Bowser and the poet Daniel Webster Davis. She will remain on the faculty for five years.
July 4, 1888: Sarah Garland Boyd marries fellow teacher Miles B. Jones. They will have no children.
1890: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones begins studying medicine at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
1890s: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones establishes a medical practice in Richmond and offers a one-hour free daily clinic for women and children. During the decade Jones is one of only three female physicians and about a dozen African American physicians in the city.
1893: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones receives her MD from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
1893: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones becomes the medical examiner for the female members of the Southern Aid and Insurance Company, which touts itself as the only company to recognize female doctors.
April 27, 1893: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones becomes the first African American woman to pass the Virginia Medical Examining Board’s examination. She receives her highest scores in surgery, practice, and hygiene.
1897: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones serves as the medical examiner for the recently organized Women’s Corner Stone Beneficial Association.
1899: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones lectures at a nurses’ training school, which is operated by the Women’s Central League of Richmond.
February 19, 1902: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones, with her husband Miles B. Jones, helps establish the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Richmond.
October 1902: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones, along with several members of the Medical and Chirurgical Society of Richmond, organize the Richmond Hospital Association to respond to the need for additional medical facilities available to African Americans in the city.
February 1903: The Richmond Hospital Association, of which Sarah Garland Boyd Jones is a member, opens a hospital for black patients in Richmond. The hospital has rooms for twenty-five patients and a charity ward with sixteen beds.
March 1903: The Richmond Hospital Association, of which Sarah Garland Boyd Jones is a member, begins training nurses at a hospital for black patients.
March 1905: The hospital on East Baker Street opened by the Richmond Hospital Association, of which Sarah Garland Boyd Jones is a member, becomes the Richmond Hospital Association and Medical College, and Training School for Nurses, Incorporated.
April 1905: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones becomes ill after caring for a patient.
May 11, 1905: Sarah Garland Boyd Jones dies in her Richmond home of active cerebral congestion. She will be buried in Richmond’s Evergreen Cemetery.
1922: The Sarah G. Jones Memorial hospital, Medical College and Training School for Nurses (Richmond Community Hospital after 1945), is named in Sarah Garland Boyd Jones’s honor.