ABSTRACT
Mary Ellen Britton was a prominent Black journalist, activist, physician, and educator widely respected for becoming the first Black female doctor in the state of Kentucky, practicing in her hometown of Lexington. After the implementation of Jim Crow laws, healthcare for Black patients became scarce, so Britton made it her life's work to make healthcare more accessible for the Black community. In addition to being a physician, Britton was a prominent activist within both the suffragist and Civil Rights movements. She wrote columns for a multitude of publications in which she vehemently opposed Jim Crow laws and advocated for social reform, especially focusing on the Separate Coach Law implemented in 1891. Furthermore, she founded and directed the Colored Orphan Industrial Home, working to help impoverished orphans and homeless elderly women acquire food, clothing, housing, and education.
