Dr. Justina L. Ford - Colorado's First Black Woman Doctor

Background Knowledge

Dr. Justina Ford overcame prejudice and discrimination to become Colorado's first female African-American physician. Excluded from the medical establishment because she was a black woman, Dr. Ford was a pioneer in opening up the medical profession to black people and women in general. Known in her later years as the Baby Doctor for delivering an estimated 7,000 babies in her career, she practiced medicine tirelessly all her life, caring and showing great compassion for people from all backgrounds at a time when Colorado's poorest, immigrants, and people of color had little access to medicine. Her pioneering efforts as well as her humanitarian service to others makes Dr. Ford an extraordinary figure in Colorado and American history.