Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson

Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson
Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson
Born	Halle Tanner; October 17, 1864; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, US
Died	26 April 1901 (aged 36–37); Nashville, Tennessee, US
Alma mater	Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania
	Scientific career
Fields	General medicine
Institutions	Tuskegee Institute

Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson (October 17, 1864 – April 26, 1901) was the first woman to be licensed as a physician in Alabama.

Biography

Early years

Johnson was born Halle Tanner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the oldest daughter of Benjamin Tucker Tanner and Sarah Elizabeth Tanner, who were prominent figures in the local African-American community. Benjamin was a minister at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, and Halle worked with him to publish the Christian Recorder, a publication of the church.[1]

In 1886, she married Charles Dillon, who died shortly after they had a child two years later. Johnson, then Halle Dillon, returned home to her family and entered the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, graduating with honors in 1891.[1]

Around the time of her graduation, Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, had written to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, seeking an African-American physician. Dillon accepted the offer soon after her graduation.[1]

Career

Dillon began her career with the Alabama state medical examination, a ten-day oral examination administered by the leading physicians of the state. She was under heavy scrutiny and the public eye due to her race and gender, but successfully passed the examination to become the first woman physician in Alabama.[1][2]

While at Tuskegee, she cared for the students and staff and taught classes at the university; she founded a nursing school as well. She also practiced medicine and pharmacy in the community and founded the Lafayette Dispensary for locals.[1]

Later life

Johnson married a mathematics professor at Tuskegee, the Reverend John Quincy Johnson, in 1894, and she ended her career there when they moved to Columbia, South Carolina. Her husband became president of Allen University, a private school for black students. They then moved to Hartford, Connecticut, Atlanta, Georgia, and Princeton, New Jersey for his education in theology; they had three children together. In 1900, the Johnsons moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where John became a minister at Saint Paul's AME Church. Halle died in childbirth on April 26, 1901.[1]

References

"Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson". Changing the Face of Medicine. NIH.
Birmingham Museum of Art (2010). Birmingham Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection. London: Giles. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5. Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2011-06-27.

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[:0-1] "Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson". Changing the Face of Medicine. NIH.

[2] Birmingham Museum of Art (2010). Birmingham Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection. London: Giles. p. 139. ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5. Archived from the original on 2011-09-10. Retrieved 2011-06-27.