[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 19 (Friday, February 18, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E300]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 A TRIBUTE TO THE LIFE AND CAREER OF DR. DOROTHY FEREBEE AS THE NATION 
                     CELEBRATES BLACK HISTORY MONTH

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                        HON. MICHAEL E. CAPUANO

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 17, 2005

  Mr. CAPUANO. Mr. Speaker, few people have embodied the educational 
values and progressive nature of Massachusetts better than Dr. Dorothy 
Ferebee. Born Dorothy Celeste Boulding in Norfolk, Virginia on January 
15, 1889, she was a distinguished African-American physician, 
administrator, and activist. The grandchild of slaves, she forged a 
path, overcoming countless obstacles, to build a career that would 
inspire many but could be replicated by none.
  Though a native of Virginia, Dr. Ferebee spent the early part of life 
in Boston. At a young age her family moved north from Norfolk to 
Boston, Massachusetts where Dorothy and her brother Ruffin grew up in a 
middle-class neighborhood. The two siblings matured in a nurturing 
environment surrounded by relatives that served as role models and 
encouraged scholarship. One of Dorothy's uncles, George Lewis Ruffin, 
was the first African-American graduate of Harvard Law School and later 
became Massachusetts's first black judge. Despite the legal influence 
of her extended family, there were eight attorneys among them; 
Dorothy's sights were set on medicine. While her friends played with 
toys, she cared for sick and injured animals, ``I would nurse and help 
the birds that fell out of trees, the dog that lost a fight.''
  A true daughter of Boston and its surrounding communities, Dr. 
Ferebee's secondary, undergraduate, and professional education came 
exclusively from institutions in Massachusetts' Eighth Congressional 
District. She graduated from Boston English High School with highest 
honors and went on to attend Simmons College. Upon completion, she 
applied to medical school and was one of the first black women accepted 
by Tufts University School of Medicine. Although she excelled, she was 
among the top five in her class, was elected a member of Zeta Phi, an 
honorary medical society for women, and was named Class Historian, she 
was denied access to internships at white hospitals. Never one to give 
up, she moved to Washington, DC, for an internship at Freedmen's 
Hospital, the precursor to Howard University and one of the few 
hospitals that would allow her to continue her education. There, in 
1928, she married Claude Thurston Ferebee, a dentist and member of the 
teaching staff at Howard University.
  Dorothy Ferebee had a very long distinguished career in the medical 
profession. After completing her internship in 1925, she began her own 
medical practice and became a professor at Howard University School of 
Medicine. Not one to sit idly, she was also in charge of student health 
services at Howard University, directed a health care project for Black 
sharecroppers in Mississippi, and founded organizations that provided 
health care for Blacks and day care for children of working mothers.
  Dr. Ferebee's time in Washington, DC, allowed her to grow 
professionally, but she never forgot her Massachusetts roots. Toward 
the end of her career, the connection to her home returned. President 
John F. Kennedy, former Congressman from the eighth district of 
Massachusetts, appointed her to the Council for Food for Peace. Though 
she could have concluded her career when she resigned from Howard 
University at the age of seventy-nine, she returned to her home state 
and continued to lecture about preventative medicine at Tufts 
University. Never digressing from her passion of selflessly helping 
others, she worked late into her life eventually passing away on 
September 14, 1980 of congestive heart failure.
  Mr. Speaker, though Dr. Dorothy Ferebee's heart stopped working for 
her at the age of ninety-one, it never failed to work for others. As a 
physician and activist, Dr. Ferebee fought to break barriers that 
impeded progress for Blacks and women. The consummate humanitarian, she 
worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the downtrodden. Her efforts 
carried her to the far comers of the world and her legacy will continue 
to be felt globally, but she will always have her home and beginnings 
in Massachusetts' Eighth Congressional District.

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