Ferebee, Dorothy Boulding, 1898-1980

Dorothy Celeste Ferebee (née Boulding; October 10, 1898 – September 14, 1980) was an American obstetrician and civil rights activist. Born in a middle-class family in Norfolk, Virginia, Boulding grew up in Boston, where she attended The English High School and Simmons College before studying medicine at Tufts University. Prevented by racism and segregation from continuing her career at Boston's white hospitals, she took a job at the Freedmen's Hospital in Washington D.C., where she became an obstetrician and promoted contraception and sex education. She married Claude Thurston Ferebee, a professor of dentistry, in 1930. Ferebee was director of the Mississippi Health Project, which provided healthcare to impoverished farmers in the state, from 1935 to 1942. She was an active participant in the movements for the rights of black Americans and of women. As president of the National Council of Negro Women, she issued a "Nine Point Programme" against racism and misogyny in American public life. She was involved with several international development organisations, including UNICEF, the International Council of Women and the World Health Organization.