Justina Ford graduated from Hering Medical College in Chicago in 1899, one of the very few Black women in the country to earn a medical degree at the time. She moved to Denver, Colorado, the same year, becoming the first Black woman licensed to practise medicine in the state.
Denied hospital privileges throughout virtually her entire career because of both her race and her gender, Ford built a practice almost entirely around house calls, travelling by foot, streetcar and eventually car to reach patients across Denver, often in the middle of the night and regardless of a family's ability to pay.
Ford became known especially for her work delivering babies, ultimately estimated to have delivered around 7,000 children over more than 50 years of practice, serving immigrant and minority communities that other doctors in the city often refused to treat, including Chinese, Japanese, Hispanic, Greek and Black families.
Ford continued practising medicine into her final years, only gaining admitting privileges to a Denver hospital in 1950, two years before her death — nearly half a century after she began her career. Her former home and office in Denver's Five Points neighbourhood is now preserved as the Black American West Museum.
- First Black woman licensed to practise medicine in Colorado (1899)
- Delivered an estimated 7,000 babies over more than 50 years of practice
- Served immigrant and minority patients turned away by other Denver doctors
- Practised medicine for decades despite being denied hospital privileges until 1950
- Former home and office now preserved as part of Denver's Black American West Museum
- Barriers can be worked around, not just fought. Denied hospital access, Ford simply built her entire practice around house calls instead.
- Serve who others will not. Her patient base grew because she treated immigrant and minority families other doctors turned away.
- Persistence outlasts prejudice. It took until 1950 for Ford to gain hospital privileges — she kept practising regardless for the 50 years before that.
- A life's work can be measured in people helped. Roughly 7,000 babies delivered stands as a legacy few physicians in any era can match.