Verina Morton Jones

Verina Morton Jones
Born (1865-01-28)January 28, 1865
Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died February 8, 1943(1943-02-08) (aged 78)
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Nationality American
Fields Allopath
Alma mater Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
Known for Early African American physician

Verina Harris Morton Jones (January 28, 1865 – February 3, 1943) was an African American physician, suffragist and clubwoman. Following her graduation from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1888 she was the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Mississippi. She then moved to Brooklyn where she co-founded and led the Lincoln Settlement House. Jones was involved with numerous civic and activist organizations and was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Early life and education

Verina Morton Jones was born on January 28, 1865 in Cleveland, Ohio to Willam D. and Kittie Stanley. From 1884 she attended the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She graduated and earned her M.D. in 1888.[1][2]

Career

Following her graduation, Jones moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi where she was a resident physician at Rust College and taught classes for the college's industrial school. She was the first woman to pass Mississippi's medical board examination and the first woman to practice medicine in the state.[1][3]

Jones married physician Walter A. Morton in 1890. They moved to Brooklyn, New York where they set up a medical practice. Jones was the first black woman physician practicing in Long Island's Nassau County. She was active in the Kings County Medical Society and the National Association of Colored Women, directing their Mother's Club in Brooklyn. From 1905 to 1906 she was a member of the Niagara Movement's female auxiliary. She also worked with the Committee for Improving Industrial Conditions of Negroes in New York City.[1] Jones fought for women's suffrage and was president of the Brooklyn Equal Suffrage League. She conducted programs to educate voters, documented racial discrimination at polling places, and testified before investigative committees of Congress.[1]

Lincoln Settlement House

Jones co-founded Brooklyn's Lincoln Settlement House with Mary White Ovington.[4] Jones supplied the down payment for the house's property at 129 Willoughby Street. She gave up much of her medical practice[5] and from May 1908 headed the organization, which began as an extension of the Henry Street Settlement founded by Lillian Wald. The Lincoln Settlement House offered free kindergarten, a day nursery and a clinic. The settlement house also sponsored debate and choral clubs and offered classes in sewing, carpentry, folk dancing, cooking, and embroidery. Upon its incorporation in 1914, the house moved to a larger building at 105 Fleet Place.[1]

NAACP and Hempstead

In 1913 Jones was elected to the Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). She served on its executive committee until 1925.[1]

In the 1920s Jones moved to Hempstead and established a medical practice. She joined other women in the community to organize the Harriet Tubman Community Club in 1928 and from 1933 to 1939 directed the settlement house.[6] She died on February 3, 1943 in Brooklyn.[7]

Personal life

Jones was an Episcopalian. She married Dr. Walter A. Morton in 1890 and gave birth to a son in 1892, Franklin W. Morton, who became an attorney.[8] Walter A. Morton died in 1895. In 1901 she married Emory Jones (d. 1927).[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Arnold, Thea (1994). "Jones, Verina Morton Harris". Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 656–657. ISBN 0-253-32774-1.
  2. ↑ Directory of Deceased American Physicians, 1804-1929. [Verina Morton Harris].
  3. ↑ Abram, Ruth J. (1985). Send Us a Lady Physician: Women Doctors in America, 1835-1920 (1st ed.). New York: Norton. pp. 114–115. ISBN 0-393-30278-4.
  4. ↑ Kellogg, Charles Flint (December 1972). "Reviewed Work: Blacks in the City: A History of the National Urban League by Guichard Parris, Lester Brooks". The Journal of American History. 59 (3): 751. JSTOR 1900735.
  5. ↑ Ovington, Mary White (1996). Black and White Sat Down Together: The Reminiscences of an NAACP Founder (1st ed.). New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York. p. 53. ISBN 1-55861-156-8.
  6. ↑ Naylor, Natalie A. (2012). Women in Long Island's Past: A History of Eminent Ladies and Everyday Lives. The History Press. p. 93. ISBN 1-60949-499-7.
  7. ↑ "Woman Physician Dies". The Crisis. 50 (3): 86. March 1943.
  8. ↑ Who's Who in Colored America, 1941-1944. Volume 6, p374.

Further reading

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