Lucy Hughes Brown (April 12, 1863 – June 26, 1911) was the first African American woman physician licensed to practice in both North Carolina and South Carolina, as well as being a cofounder of a nursing school and hospital in South Carolina. Dr. Hughes Brown was also an activist and poet.

Lucy Hughes Brown was born in Mebane, (Mebanesville), North Carolina, on April 12, 1863.
One version of her life story that we found states that she was born an orphan. A different version states she was born to poor parents and was one of eight children.

Per a NC Death Cert. #328, Dr. Lucy Hughes Brown's parents were John & Mary Moore Hughes. The informant for their marriage license was David Hughes.

So far we've not found any information about her years before she attended Scotia Seminary in Concord, graduating in 1885. At Scotia Seminary, she met Sarah Dudley Pettey who introduced her to activism.
After graduating from Scotia Seminary, Hughes began writing poetry. Her two most notable poems are called "Thoughts on Retiring" and "A Retrospective".

She went on to study at the the Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia. This school was one of the earliest colleges in the world authorized to award MDs to women. She graduated with her medical degree in 1894.
She was one of fifty-two women in her class. She was also a delegate of the National Federation of Afro-American Women and attended their conference in Washington DC in 1896.

Lucy Hughes Brown was granted her license to practice in North Carolina in May 1894, and was one of three women who were licensed that year. Hughes Brown was the first African American woman licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina.

She established a practice in Wilmington, North Carolina, and married Reverend David Brown Jr., who was the minister of a Wilmington Presbyterian church and an educator. They had one daughter. (One version mentioned they had one daughter. The other version did not mention a child.) Brown worked in the community providing health resources and connections that aided her philanthropic efforts to improve health and life conditions for African Americans in Wilmington. .

After practicing medicine in North Carolina for two years, in 1896 she and her husband moved to Charleston, SC. because of his work. By doing so, she also became South Carolina's first African American woman physician. Reverend Brown was the principal of Wallingford Academy, a school for African Americans that was set up in 1865, and was organized by a minister with the Zion Presbyterian Church.

By 1900, Hughes Brown resided in Charleston at 11 Nassau street, Dr. Brown was listed as a physician in the city directory, and advertised her services in the paper. At that time, African American doctors in Charleston wanted to train Black nurses in the city’s public institutions and wards. Their efforts were rejected. Thus Dr. Alonzo McClennan, Dr. Lucy Brown and other Black physicians, determined to establish an institution for the “care of the colored sick” where nurses could be educated.

The Cannon Street Hospital and Training School for Nurses was established in 1897. This was the very first hospital in South Carolina with a nurses’ training school and the ninth Black institution of its kind in the country.

The Hospital Herald, the official publication of the Association of Colored Physicians of South Carolina, describes the educational program. One entry by Dr. Brown for the “Department of Nurse Training” advised student nurses that excellent nursing balanced textbook knowledge, kindness, “great adaptability, good judgement (sic)…and a willingness to do work outside the usual line.”

And work the women did. They were hired out to both Black and White families, while the fees were collected by the hospital. Student nurses maintained the building, cared for the patients, cooked, washed the laundry, managed the poultry farm, and tended the vegetable garden.
One group of student nurses organized the “Gatling Guns,” giving dance performances at local events. With the money raised, they presented a much-needed operating table to the hospital.

Brown also worked to advance the condition of African American women outside the Cannon Hospital.
She served as a delegate to the National Colored Woman’s Congress at the 1895 Atlanta Exposition and assisted in the creating of resolutions addressing southern race relations and demanding safer conditions for women on public transportation.

The hospital and nurses’ training school, which Dr. Alfonso McClellan, Dr. Lucy Brown, and African American physicians founded, became McClennan-Banks Memorial Hospital. That institution closed in 1976.
In 1902, the British Journal of Nursing recognized her as a leader in her profession in South Carolina.
Brown retired in 1904 due to illness and died on June 26, 1911.

At the time of Hughes Brown's death, the family had moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Reverend David Brown taught at Biddle University, a “Presbyterian school for males, which later became Johnson C. Smith University, one of North Carolina's 11 HBCU's.

Rev. David Brown Jr. was born in 1852, in Salisbury, Rowan County, North Carolina.
He died 24 Aug 1912 (aged 59–60) Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
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Source: Wikipedia

Source: South Carolina Encyclopedia
online.

Source: Voices: Stories of Change, Charleston, SC

Source: Find a grave