Susie King Taylor

• Susie King Taylor was a regimental nurse with the Union army during the Civil War. She was famous for using both conventional and folk techniques in helping the sick and wounded, and using the same techniques for her own health. She said that she avoided the devastating disease of small pox during the Civil War by drinking "sassafras tea constantly, which kept my blood purged and prevented me from contracting this dread scourge."
  
  

Susan McKinney Steward

• Susan McKinney Steward was the first black female doctor in the state of New York and the third in the nation. She started a successful medical practice in Brooklyn, New York, serving a variety of people. She made her mark as a pediatrician and was involved in several ventures including Brooklyn's Homeopathic Hospital and Dispensary, the Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People and the Equal Suffrage League of Brooklyn. Steward later served as the college physician for Wilberforce University in Ohio.
  
  

Patricia Bath

• Patricia Bath became the first African-American female doctor to patent a medical invention. She created a device for eye surgery that allowed the removal of cataract lenses by using lasers to make the procedure more precise. The device is called the Cataract Laserphaco Probe. Her invention was amazing in that it allowed those who had been blind for more than 30 years to regain their sight. Bath also has patents for her invention in Canada, Japan and Europe.
  
  

Mae C. Jemison

• Mae C. Jemison was the first black woman admitted to NASA's astronaut training program. After her training, she became an astronaut with the title of sciencemission specialist. Before becoming an astronaut, she was a Peace Corps medical officer in Sierra Leone and Liberia after graduating from Cornell University medical school and interning and becoming a general practitioner at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center.
  
  

Jocelyn Elders

• Jocelyn Elders was the first African-American and the second female to be Surgeon General of the United States. Elders' area of expertise was pediatrics and she sustained a very successful practice for more than 20 years. She became an expert in growth problems and juvenile diabetes. Equally as important to her was teen pregnancy. This became a sort of calling card for her and she proposed a more urgent need on the government's behalf to seriously address this issue.