"Dr. Jones’ 1913 article, “Fifty Years of Negro Public Health”, shed light on the health experiences of Black people, specifically focusing on the increased risk of death, infant mortality, and diseases such as tuberculosis and syphilis. She combats ignorant arguments made by White doctors that the mortality of Black people increased after emancipation.

Dr. Jones also discussed how the aftermath of the Civil War and the intergenerational trauma of slavery impacted the health of Black folks in the present day. In this piece, Dr. Jones called fellow healthcare professionals to take action towards health equity for all, starting with understanding the lived experiences of Black folks in the U.S. "
Narrative source: Brittany Pompilii / missIINFORMED- March 13, 2021
.
.

*In order to give as complete a background about Dr. Jones's life as we could, we pulled information from several sources. They will be listed at bottom*

Dr. Sophia Bethena Jones: Canada’s First Black Woman to Earn a Medical Degree
"Sophia Bethena Jones was the daughter of James Monroe Jones and Emily F. Francis Jones. Her father, who was a gunsmith by trade, was born in North Carolina and was one of the first African American graduates of Oberlin College. He was born into an enslaved family in and purchased their freedom in 1843. In the year Sophia was born, he was involved with John Brown's abolition activities in Canada West.

Jones had three sisters: Anna Jones, Fredericka Jones, and Emma Jones, and two brothers: George Jones and James Jones Her sisters Anna H. Jones (1855–1932) and Fredericka F. Jones (1860–1905) both became teachers.

Jones’ parents participated in the abolitionist movement in Canada; their activism was said to influence Jones’ desire to break barriers for women in the medical field. Growing up, Jones demonstrated passion for medicine and public health, and decided to pursue a medical education at the University of Toronto.

.
Sophia Bethena Jones: Canada’s First Black Woman to Earn a Medical Degree
By John L. Steckle / The Journal Of Blacks In Higher Learning - October 18, 2023

Sophia Bethena Jones was born on March 16, 1857 in Chatham, Ontario, a town that was a major northern terminus of the Underground Railroad, known in the 1850s as the ‘Black Mecca of Canada’. Consequently, the town had a relatively large Black population when Sophia was growing up, at least a third of the local population.

Her early education would have been in a segregated private school, financially supported by the local Black community, with Black teachers. Such schools were the only options available for Black students in Chatham until 1891. She went to Wilberforce Collegiate Institute, which prepared Black students for university.

She was accepted as an undergraduate at the University of Toronto in 1879. However, she was not admitted to the medical school, because she was both a woman and Black.

After teaching for a year, Sophia pursued her dream in the United States. She was accepted at the University of Michigan Medical School in 1880, and on May 16, 1885, at 28 years of age, she became the first Black woman to graduate from that program, as well as the first Black Canadian woman to receive a medical degree, something little recognized in Canada.

The University of Michigan Medical School has honored Dr. Jones in several ways. There is the Sophia Jones Lectureship on Infectious Diseases, and the Sophia B. Jones Room used for conferences. Then there is the Fitzbutler Jones Alumni Society, named after her and the first male Black male graduate of the medical school, William Henry Fitzbutler, who graduated in 1872. It was formed in 1997 to support Black students and alumni.

Dr. Sophia B. Jones went from the University of Michigan to teaching at what would become Spelman College, the oldest historically Black college for women, located in Atlanta. Dr. Jones joined the faculty in 1885 as the first Black female teacher, teaching there until 1888. In 1886, she was involved with the founding and operating of the nursing program as well as establishing their infirmary.

Dr. Jones went on to teach at Wilberforce University in Ohio, a private Historically Black institution dedicated to the education of Black students. Dr. Jones worked as a resident physician and provided healthcare to Black folks in the community..

From there, she continued her career, first in St. Louis, then at the Frederick Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia, which provided the first training school for Black nurses in the city. "She also earned a patent in 1890 for a "Barrel trunk."

Jones had a passion for advancing public health and achieving health equity in the post-Civil War era, and in September 1913, Dr. Jones published an article entitled “Fifty Years of Negro Public Health”, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, one of the first research publications written in the medical field by a Black woman.

Her words ring as prophetically true today as they did when she first wrote them:

"It is not too much to expect victory for a race, which, in fifty years, has reduced its illiteracy from an estimated percentage of 95 to one of 33.3 as given by the census figures of 1910. Let the teaching of general elementary physiology, including sex physiology, and sanitation be placed on a rational basis in all colored schools and colleges, in the hands of men and women thoroughly trained and with full knowledge of the health problems named above, and there can be little doubt that the issue of the conflict will be such a rapidly declining death rate and reduced morbidity as will astonish the civilized world."

At the time her article was published, she was the resident physician at the Agricultural and Mechanical College in Greensboro, North Carolina, (which is now known as A&T University, later became a branch of the University of North Carolina System.

Later in life, Jones retired with her sister Anna to Monrovia, California, where they ran an orange grove. Sophia and Anna both died in 1932; Sophia B. Jones was 75 years old.
.
Source: Wikipedia

Source: The Journal Of Blacks In Higher Learning - John L. Steckle

Source: Brittany Pompilii / missIINFORMED