Tufts University: 175 Years of Innovation

Dr. Jessie Gideon Garnett, D1919, was the first Black woman to graduate from Tufts University School of Dental Medicine. She demonstrated persistence in the face of racial discrimination; when she arrived for registration, the dean declared that her admittance had been a mistake. But as retold by her daughter, Ella Garnett, “she stood her ground, saying, ‘oh no, here is my acceptance letter.’” After graduation, Garnett became Boston’s first Black female dentist to establish a professional practice.

Dr. Mary Crutchfield Thompson, D30, was another of the first Black women to graduate from Tufts. Afterward, Thompson worked at the Boston Dispensary, the first permanent medical facility in New England, and assisted in the Mississippi Health Project, led by fellow Tufts alum Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, M24. Thompson was awarded an outstanding achievement award for her humanitarian services by the NAACP in 1973.