Matilda A. Evans

Matilda Arabella Evans (May 13, 1866 – November 17, 1935) was the first African-American woman licensed to practice medicine in South Carolina and an advocate for improved health care for African Americans, particularly children.

Early life

Matilda Arabella Evans was born on May 13, 1866, to Anderson and Harriet Evans in Aiken, South Carolina. Matilda was the oldest of three children and spent much of the beginning of her life working in fields alongside her family. She attended the Schofield Industrial School, which was established by Martha Schofield, a Philadelphia Quaker. Schofield assisted Evans with applying to college and became her mentor, later inspiring Evans to write her biography. Schofield helped Evans raise the funds needed for Evans to attend Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. She left in 1892 after graduating in 1891 from Oberlin College to accept a teaching position at Haines Institute in Augusta, Georgia. After a year of teaching Matilda entered the Woman’s Medical College in Philadelphia, again with the help of her resourceful mentor, Schofield, who persuaded a wealthy benefactor, Sarah Corlies, to fund her education. The Alfred Jones to whom this letter is addressed was Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Board of Corporators of the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

In 1897 Evans received a medical degree and abandoned her goal of becoming a medical missionary in Africa to move to Columbia, South Carolina and set up a practice.

Medical career

Evans enrolled at the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1893. She received her M.D. in 1897 and moved to Columbia, South Carolina, where she was the first African-American woman to establish a medical practice in the state. Prior to the Civil War, most African Americans were enslaved, and very few free African Americans were trained physicians or surgeons as medical education was not open to them. African Americans seeking medical careers most often received their medical education in Canada or Europe, and a few from medical schools in the North. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, African Americans seeking a medical education were faced with difficult prospects. This continued into much of the 20th century, and although some black students were admitted into white medical schools and hospitals, they faced blatant racism, ostracism, and prejudice.