This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, we will explore the world of Colorado’s first African-American Physician, Doctor Justina Laurena Ford. She was born in Knoxville, Illinois, on January 22, 1871.
Ford’s mother was a nurse and midwife whom she often shadowed during patient visits. As a young girl, Ford also enjoyed dissecting frogs and making up names for illnesses. In 1899 she graduated from Hering Medical School in Chicago.
Shortly after graduating, Ford and her husband, Baptist minister John Ford, moved to the Five Points neighborhood in Denver. Through discrimination, Ford applied for her Colorado medical license.
Sadly, being female and being of color kept Ford from joining the Colorado Medical Association. Though disappointed, she refused to give up and found a way to practice medicine in the Mile High City.
Doctor Ford set up a practice in her home on Arapahoe Street, specializing in gynecology, obstetrics, and pediatrics. Later, she bought a larger building a few blocks down the road. She was committed to providing affordable medical care to anyone in the community, regardless of race, gender, language, citizenship, or ability to pay.
Patients paid her in goods, services, or money. Whites, African Americans, and non-English speaking immigrants turned away from hospitals were welcomed in Doctor Ford’s office. She also learned multiple languages to help treat her patients.
In 1950, Dr. Ford, still the only female African-American doctor in Denver, was finally allowed into the Colorado and American Medical Associations. Doctor Ford continued caring for patients until two weeks before her death.
During her time as a practicing physician, she delivered nearly 7,000 babies. Dr. Justina L. Ford’s house is now the home of the Black American West Museum, which you can read about in The Mountain-Ear’s February 23, 2023, edition.
She practiced medicine for roughly 50 years and passed on October 14, 1952. In 1985, Doctor Ford was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.
To learn more about Doctor Justina L. Ford visit https:// coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/ justina-ford
