Verina Harris Morton Jones (b. 1865 – d. 1943)
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Vernia Harris Morton Jones lived to be a physician and suffragist. Jones graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1888. After graduating in 1885 she moved to Mississippi and became the first woman licensed to practice medicine in the state. She later became a resident physician at Rust College before moving to Brooklyn, New York her husband, also a physician, where they established their practice. Upon relocating to New York, Jones became the first African American woman to practice in Nassau County, Long Island. Outside of her work in healthcare, Jones was active in the suffrage movement and within her community. After moving to Brooklyn, she co-founded the Lincoln Settlement House and was elected to the Board of Directors of the NAACP. She taught health classes for the YWCA and was the president of the Brooklyn Equal Suffrage League, where she conducted programs to educate voters, documented racial discrimination at polling places, and testified before investigative committees of Congress. Lastly, she established the Harriet Tubman Center—an organization focused on providing social services to young black women.
Additional Sources:
Alexander Street Short Biography:
Women’s Activism Short Biography:
https://www.womensactivism.nyc/catalog/376
Drexel University Short Biography:
https://drexel.edu/now/archive/2016/February/African-American-Women-Physicians/
