Black History Month: Dentistry

Ida Gray Nelson Rollins

1890:  Ida Gray Nelson Rollins graduates from the University of Michigan College of Dentistry and becomes the first black woman to earn a dental degree in the United States.   

She was one of just three women in her graduating class. Rollins was born in Tennessee in 1867 and orphaned as a teenager. A part-time job as an assistant in a dental office served as a springboard for her 40-year career as a dentist. Gray began practicing in Cincinnati but later moved to Chicago when she married. She became the first black woman to practice dentistry in Chicago. She was also very active in professional associations and women’s clubs and she mentored other African-American women who wanted to pursue professional careers. Mary Imogene Williams became the second black woman to hold such a distinction when she graduated from Howard University’s dental school in 1896.

Rollins died in 1953, but her name lives on through an annual diversity award given by the School of Dentistry at the University of Michigan. 

Black History Month at RVC 
In keeping with this year’s theme “Health, Wellness, and Comm-UNITY,” our news articles this month will highlight pioneers and “firsts” in the fields of medicine and technology.  Some figures are historical; others are contemporary. The accomplishments of the figures being presented throughout the month are noteworthy for the extraordinary impact they had or are having on building, improving, and sustaining comm-UNITY.   The good they did extends to all communities, all humans.