Tufts University: 175 Years of Innovation

Dorothy Boulding Ferebee, M24, was a trailblazing public health professional, best known for her visionary medical excursions which brought medical care to people of color around America. After receiving degrees from Simmons and Tufts, she proceeded to work at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she began actively promoting birth control and women’s sex education. During her time at Freedmen’s, Ferebee also began developing two radical projects: the Southeast Neighborhood House and the Mississippi Health Project, both of which brought “medical service, its institution and understanding, to communities where public health work has been greatly neglected.” The former focused on Black residents of the D.C. area, and the second involved Black sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta. Despite such challenges, Ferebee and her team were able to provide healthcare to around 15,000 Mississippi residents.