Jefferson MildredFay

American physician and political activist, the first black woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society. Jefferson is known for her opposition to the legalization of abortion and her work as president of the National Right to Life Committee. At the age of 16 years she earned her bachelors degree from Texas College. Since she was too young to attend medical school, she went to Tufts University where she received her masters degree. She then went on to Harvard Medical School and graduated in 1951, becoming the first black woman to do so. After graduating from medical school, she did a surgical internship at Boston City Hospital, becoming the first woman to do so. She was also the first female doctor at the former Boston University Medical Center. She would later become the first woman to become a member of the Boston Surgical Society. Jefferson is noted for changing Ronald Reagans stance on abortion from pro-choice to pro-life. He wrote to her in a letter, "You have made it irrefutably clear that an abortion is the taking of a human life, I am grateful to you." Jefferson died in her home at Cambridge, Massachusetts on 15 October 2010, aged 83. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less