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“B” is for Brown, Lucy Hughes (1863-1911)

“B” is for Brown, Lucy Hughes (1863-1911). Physician. Brown, a native of North Carolina, completed a medical degree at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1894. After practicing medicine in North Carolina, she moved to Charleston and became the first Black female physician to practice in South Carolina. With several other African Americans, she contributed to the establishment of the Cannon Hospital and Training School for Nurses in 1897, which later was renamed McClennan-Banks Hospital. Brown headed the department of nursing training. She also worked to advance the condition of African American women outside the Cannon Hospital. Lucy Hughes Brown served as a delegate to the National Colored Women'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.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.