Black women physicians’ stories have gone untold for far too long, leaving gaping holes in American medical history, in women’s history, and in Black history. It’s time to set the record straight.

Medical student Jasmine Brown began researching Black women physicians at Oxford University when she was a Rhodes scholar. Her debut book, Twice as Hard, creates a new class of role models and establishes a lineage of Black women doctors whose accomplishments are both important and inspirational. 

In this moment of national reckoning about the American systems that have upheld racism and sexism, Jasmine Brown has written the first history of Black women physicians in the United States. 

Jasmine Brown will join BLR Board Member Ashley McMullen and BLR Editor-in-Chief Danielle Ofri for a timely conversation about the interplay of racism and sexism within medicine, shedding light on a powerful history of Black women physicians that has long been invisible. 

Co-sponsored by BLR and the American Medical Women's Association as part of Black History Month. (RSVP even if you can't make the exact time of the event. We'll send you an email the next day with the link, which will stay active afterward.)

You can purchase Twice as Hard on BLR's Bookshop page. A portion of your purchase will support BLR.

Read more about BLR and find copies of the journal at BLReview.org.

Jasmine Brown is a medical student at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and was previously a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. Brown has long been involved in advocacy work. While in college, at Washington University in St. Louis, she founded the Minority Association of Rising Scientists, working to provide minority students with resources to get involved in research as well as a community to support them along the way. It was her childhood dream to help increase the number of underrepresented minorities in science and medicine. Through her debut book and outreach efforts, she plans to do just that. www.jasminebrownauthor.com

Ashley McMullen is a member of the BLR Board of Directors. She is currently an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a primary care internist based at the San Francisco VA Hospital. Dr. McMullen's work focuses on the role of narrative and storytelling in medical education as a mechanism for healing, advocacy, and improving care across differences. She served as the host and producer of The Nocturnists: Black Voices in Healthcare Series, and now produces The Human Doctor, a story-telling podcast with Dr. Kimberly Manning. 

Danielle Ofri is editor-in-chief of BLR, and a primary care doctor at Bellevue Hospital. Her writings appear in the The New Yorker and the New York Times. Her newest book is When We Do Harm, a Doctor Confronts Medical Error. www.danielleofri.com

Praise for Twice as Hard:

“Well-researched reclamation of neglected yet invaluable history . . . Still, Brown, as remarkable as the pioneers she profiles, ends on a high note, vowing to become a ‘changemaker.’”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“Brown debuts with an eye-opening history of nine African American women in medicine . . . This immersive tribute to a group of pioneering women will inspire readers of all backgrounds.”
—Publishers Weekly