Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee (October 10, 1898 – September 14, 1980) was an American obstetrician and civil rights activist. Biography Background and Early Life Born on October 10, 1898, in Norfolk, Virginia, Dorothy Celeste Boulding Ferebee was a civil rights pioneer, a groundbreaking physician, and an AAUW board member who worked tirelessly in ensuring access to healthcare for underserved communities (AAUW, 2022). While she was young, her mother, Florence Boulding, became ill and sent her and her brother, Ruffin, to live with her great aunt in Boston, Massachusetts (Mack, 2021. Dorothy and her brother, Ruffin grew up in the middle-class neighborhood of Beacon Hill (National Institutes of Health, 2015). Her family provided her with an enriched childhood, composed of eight attorneys. Although discussions about law dominated the household, Dorothy wanted to be a doctor her whole life. Since being a child, she always wanted to aid the injured and cure the sick. While most of the other girls her age were playing with toys, she was out doctoring ailing and injured animals (National Institutes of Health, 2015). Education After graduating from English High School in 1915 with the highest honors, Dorothy attended Simmons College in Boston. During her undergrad years she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, Epsilon Chapter. She immediately applied to medical school at Tufts University School of Medicine after graduating from Simmons College (National Institutes of Health, 2015). She finished in 1924 (Mack, 2021) among the top five in her class College (National Institutes of Health, 2015). In 1927, she was one of nine women to pass the District of Columbia medical exam (Brandman, 2021). Career and Impact Despite graduating from Tufts with an exceptional ranking amongst her class, Boulding was met with a barrier of racism and discrimination as she was not allowed to intern at white hospitals in the Boston area (National Institutes of Health, 2015). So, instead, she moved down to Washington D.C. and started her internship at the black-owned and staffed Freedman’s Hospital. She worked at Freedman’s Hospital as an obstetrician, where began promoting contraception and sex education to women, which were both highly controversial topics during the time (Brandman, 2021). Upon completing her internship in 1925, she began her own medical clinic in an impoverished part of the city (Mack, 2021). To improve healthcare in the neighborhood, she persuaded the trustees of the Friendship House, which were a charitable