Virginia Margaret Alexander
Personal Information
Born: 1899
Died: 1949
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
University of Pennsylvania BS Education 1920; Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania MD 1925; Yale University MS Public Health 1937
Professional Life
Field of Study: Public Health
Institution/Corporation: Aspiranto Health Home
Degrees & Memberships: Society of Friends, Delta Sigma Theta, board of Wharton Settlement, YWCA, Women's International League for Peace & Freedom
Awards & Achievements
Awards: None found
Achievements: 1930 added on to her home & opened 3-bed hospital Aspiranto Health Home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; studied racism in the healthcare system & showed how it harmed the health of Black Americans; worked at Howard University in charge of health for female students; advocated for the passage of the 1939 National Health Bill to establish a national health insurance system; served with the US Public Health Service 1943-45 treating coal & iron miners in Alabama & developed lupus (complications of which killed her) while there
both her parents were slaves
mother died when she was 4
4th of 5 children born to her parents
father lost his livery/riding academy when she was 13 due to the increase in automobiles
she offered to drop out of school to help with family expenses but her father insisted she obrain a quality education
waited tables, worked as a maid & clerk to pay her living expenses while she attended University of Pennsylvania on a scholarship
couldn't get an internship in Philadelphia even from her own medical college because she was Black
relocated to Kansas city where she & a colleague, Mae MacCarroll, became the 1st Black Female interns at Kansas city Colored Hospital
returned to Philadelphia in 1927 where she began treating patients out of her own home
described Aspiranto as an example of "socialized"medicine treating Black people who had experienced racism at other Philadelphia hospitals, often free of charge
had a romantic relationship with W.E.B. du Bois in the 1930s
her brother, Raymond Pace alexander, became a prominent civil rights attorney & later a judge & member of the Philadelphia City Council
her pregnant patients were given a 2-week recuperative stay at Aspiranto after giving birth
attended her 1st Quaker meeting in 1917 & although she experienced racial discrimination within the Quakers, remained one until her death