We are continuing our series for Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day today. Let’s learn more about the incredible achievements of Dr. Rebecca Cole and meditate on the creative words of Sarojini Naidu.
Rebecca Cole graduated from medical school and became a physician in 1867. She was not only a pioneer for becoming a doctor as an African American woman at that time, but also a public health advocate and hygiene reformer in the US. An evidence-based researcher, she was an advocate against the biased data used to conclude that the cause of inner city families’ high death rate was from a lack of hygiene. She opened the Women’s Directory Center with Charlotte Abbey, providing medical and legal services to destitute women, and was appointed Superintendent of a Home. She was also the esteemed colleague of the first US-educated female doctor, Elizabeth Blackwell. We only wish there was more historical data about this amazing woman!
To learn more about Rebecca Cole, you can visit the Wikipedia site here.
Song Of A Dream
Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
Lone in the light of that magical grove,
I felt the stars of the spirits of Love
Gather and gleam round my delicate youth,
And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth;
To quench my longing I bent me low
By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
– Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949)
Click here to learn more about the amazing contributions of Sarojini Naidu.