Pauline E. Dinkins
Pauline E. Dinkins | |
|---|---|
 Pauline E. Dinkins, from a 1929 publication | |
| Born | Pauline Elizabeth Dinkins December 30, 1891 Marion, Alabama, U.S. |
| Died | March 6, 1961 (age 69) Selma, Alabama, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Physician, medical missionary |
Pauline Elizabeth Dinkins (December 30, 1891 – March 6, 1961) was an American physician and medical educator from Selma, Alabama, who worked as a missionary in Liberia in 1928 and 1929. She also published a book, African Folk Tales (1933).
Early life and education
[edit]Dinkins was born in Marion, Alabama,[1] the daughter of Rev. Charles Spencer Dinkins and Pauline Elizabeth Sears Dinkins. Her father, who was born into slavery, was the president of Selma University.[2] Her brother William H. Dinkins was also president of Selma University.[3] She graduated from Selma University in 1906, and Hartshorn Memorial College in 1911. She earned her medical degree at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1917.[4][5] She pursued further studies at the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1927 and 1928.[6]
Career
[edit]Dinkins was resident physician at Tuskegee Institute from 1924 to 1925, and head of the Brewer Hospital and Nurse Training School in Greenwood, South Carolina.[7][8] "Through the wards of a hospital, a community is blessed; through its training school, many communities are blessed," she explained in 1927.[9] She became a medical missionary in 1928, as medical director of a Baptist hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, working with American nurse Ruth E. Occomy.[10][11]
Dinkins's missionary work was cut short by illness,[12] and she returned to the United States to recover in 1929.[13] She conducted a private practice in Selma for over twenty years, and was a resident physician at John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital.[1] In 1931, she donated $500 to built a missionary hospital in West Africa.[14] In 1949 she was honored by Color magazine as one of the "outstanding Negro women who made their mark in 1948."[3]
Publications
[edit]- "Soul Sick" (1924, poem in a medical journal)[15]
- "Sarcoma of Superior Maxillary Bone and Pellagra" (1925, article)
- "The Student's Health" (1926, article)[16]
- African Folk Tales (1933, book, illustrated by Effie Lee Newsome)[17]
- "When" (1941, poem)
Dinkins's book African Folk Tales (1933) was re-released in 2002,[1] edited by her niece, Pauline Dinkins Anderson,[18] a noted organist and music educator in Selma.[19] Dinkins wrote professional articles for the Medical Woman's Journal in the 1940s.[20]
Personal life
[edit]In her later years, Dinkins lived with her sisters Mabel (a teacher), Daisy (a pharmacist) and Ethel (a music teacher) in Selma.[21] She became paralyzed in 1951, and died in 1961, at the age of 69.[22] At least two of her nephews became prominent in Selma.[23][24] The Dinkins family's role in Selma's civil rights and cultural history[2] was recognized when the Burwell-Dinkins-Anderson House became a museum,[25] and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2022.[26]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Local Publishing Company to Hold Signing". The Selma Times-Journal. 2002-02-01. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b Beifuss, John (1994-11-25). "Spiritual, community role model is retiring". The Commercial Appeal. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Negro Woman Doctor Honored by Magazine". The Selma Times-Journal. 1949-05-08. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Hawkins, Kyah (2021-02-25). "The True Path to Diversity". Drexel University Legacy Center. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
- ^ Gamble, Vanessa Northington (2021). ""Sisters of a Darker Race": African American Graduates of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1867–1925". Bulletin of the History of Medicine. 95 (2): 169–197. ISSN 1086-3176.
- ^ "Courier Verse". New Pittsburgh Courier. 1941-04-19. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Brewer Hospital and Nurse Training School (advertisement)". The Crisis: 253. March 1926.
- ^ "Notes and Comments". Medical and Professional Woman's Journal. 33 (2): 57. February 1926.
- ^ "Nurses' Training School Ideal Stated". The Congregationalist. 112: 296. March 10, 1927.
- ^ East, J. E. "Colored Baptist Missions" The Crisis (November 1929): 372.
- ^ Thoms, Adah B. (1929). Pathfinders, a History of the Progress of Colored Graduate Nurses. Printed at Kay Printing House. p. 106.
- ^ "Flashes". Oklahoma City Star. 1931-02-06. p. 21. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Society News and Activities of Selma, Alabama". The Birmingham Reporter. 1929-10-26. p. 6. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Paster Erected $67,000 Station in West Africa". The Afro-American. 1931-03-14. p. 7. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Dinkins, Pauline E (July 1924). ""Soul Sick"". Journal of the National Medical Association. 16 (3). Archived from the original on 2025-02-03.
- ^ Dinkins, Pauline E. (December 1926). "The Student's Health". The American Missionary. 80 (11): 346–348.
- ^ "African Folk Tales". Vintage Points: News from Special Collections, Williams College Archives & Chapin Library. 2016-10-17. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
- ^ Capshaw, Katharine; Smith, Katharine Capshaw (2006-08-16). Children's Literature of the Harlem Renaissance. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-21888-9.
- ^ Chestnut, J. L. Jr. (1982-01-03). "Black women contribute to quality of local life". The Selma Times-Journal. p. 5. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Alabama Negro Woman Doctor Lauded for Medical Articles". The Montgomery Advertiser. 1948-12-05. p. 15. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ 1930, 1940, and 1950 United States censuses, via Ancestry.
- ^ "Dr. Pauline Dinkins Dies". Birmingham Mirror. 1961-03-11. pp. 1, 8. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Dr. C. Dinkins Named to City Hospital Board". The Call. 1962-01-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2025-02-08 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Dr. Dinkins Opens Office in Selma". The Huntsville Mirror. 1955-07-16. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
- ^ Burwell Dinkins Historic Home. "The home of change". Burwell Dinkins Historic Home. Retrieved 2025-02-08.
- ^ "Burwell-Dinkins-Anderson House", National Registry of Historic Places Registration Form (2022).
External links
[edit]- Letter from Pauline Dinkins to Martha Tracy (June 23, 1919), from the Drexel University Legacy Center
- Medical licensure application and examination for Dr. Pauline Elizabeth Dinkins (1919), Alabama Department of Archives and History
- Letter from Pauline E. Dinkins to W. E. B. Du Bois (May 13, 1932), in the W. E. B. Du Bois Papers, University of Massachusetts, Amherst