{"id":37934,"date":"2026-01-28T08:30:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T15:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=37934"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:04:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T18:04:47","slug":"honoring-dr-justina-ford-colorados-first-black-woman-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/honoring-dr-justina-ford-colorados-first-black-woman-doctor\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Dr. Justina Ford: Barred from hospitals, the Black woman doctor built a home practice and delivered 7,000 babies over the next 50 years"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Dr.
Dr. Justina Ford poses with her doctor’s bag. She was barred from practicing at hospitals, so she saw patients at her home and paid house calls, delivering 7,000 babies. Photo courtesy of the Black American West Museum & Heritage Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The young Black woman doctor arrived in Denver in 1902, eager to practice medicine, but authorities refused to recognize Dr. Justina Ford or grant her privileges at the city\u2019s hospital.<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t stop Ford.<\/p>\n

For 50 years, she treated patients in her home, paid house calls to immigrants, people of color and other underserved patients, and delivered more than 7,000 babies, leaving a remarkable legacy.<\/p>\n

And year after year, Ford kept fighting for long-overdue recognition from the medical establishment. Officials with the Colorado Medical Society finally recognized Ford in 1950, two years before she died in 1952 at age 81.<\/p>\n

Dr. Justina Ford confronted discrimination, earned her medical license and fought for a place in Colorado’s medical community<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When Dr. Jacqueline Ward-Gaines<\/a>, an emergency medicine specialist at UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a>, thinks about Ford, she is absolutely awestruck.<\/p>\n

Not only was Ford a pioneer in medicine, but she also had remarkable patience and persistence to fight for her rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is someone who applied year after year to the American Medical Association, the Colorado Medical Society and the Denver Medical Society. And, it\u2019s not until 1950 that they let her in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey kept telling her \u2018no,\u2019 but she kept trying year after year. It\u2019s beautiful to have that persistence,\u201d said Ward-Gaines<\/a>, who is also an assistant professor <\/a>at the University of Colorado School of Medicine<\/a> on the Anschutz Campus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Jacqueline Ward-Gaines is awestruck by the courage of Dr. Justina Ford. Ward-Gaines poses with a mural that honors Ford. It’s located in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, where Ford practiced medicine in her home for 50 years. Photo by Katie Kerwin McCrimmon<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ER doctor invokes Dr. Justina Ford when teaching medical students, using her story to show what’s possible<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ward-Gaines said there were only seven students of color in her medical school class\u00a0at the\u00a0University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine in the 1990s<\/a><\/span>, nearly a century after Ford graduated from Hering Medical College in Chicago in 1899.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt still shocks me that she made it through,\u201d said Ward-Gaines, who found her own experience in the 1990s challenging and counsels many medical students and residents of color today who are weary of having to plow paths in schools and professions that still are not as diverse as they should be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI invoke Dr. Ford with medical students. I tell them, \u2018I know you\u2019re going through times that are trying. Medical school training is so stressful, but I want to give you a positive role model to get you through,\u2019\u201d Ward-Gaines says.<\/p>\n

She tells them how Ford\u2019s mother was a nurse, and Justina followed her mom around to soak up knowledge. As a little girl, she learned about anatomy by playing with frogs and preparing chickens for dinner so she could explore their insides.<\/p>\n

Dr. Justina Ford earned her medical license and grew into the healer many called the ‘Mother Teresa’ of Denver<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After graduating from medical school, Justina and her husband moved to Alabama, where she worked for a short time. Her husband then came to Denver to serve as the pastor at Zion Baptist Church<\/a> and Ford later joined him. She expected to be received well in Denver but ran into discrimination right away.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
Dr. Justina Ford. Photo courtesy of The Western History Collection, Denver Public Library.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she sought her medical license, the examiner told her, \u201cI feel dishonest taking a fee from you. You\u2019ve got two strikes against you. First of all, you\u2019re a lady, and second, you\u2019re colored.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford later told a writer for the Negro Digest that she \u201cfought like a tiger\u201d against discrimination.<\/p>\n

Ford received her medical license \u2013 No. 3800 \u2013 on Oct. 2, 1902, and for decades was the only Black woman doctor licensed to practice medicine in Denver.<\/p>\n

Ford tried right away to get privileges at Denver General Hospital, now known as Denver Health, but was turned away from the hospital, as were all Black people at the time.<\/p>\n

The Fords purchased a two-story brick home in the Five Points area east of downtown Denver, and Ford started seeing patients there. She practiced gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics. She was known for caring for anyone who needed help and loved bringing babies into the world. One family described her arriving to deliver a baby on Thanksgiving. As the mother labored, Ford put on an apron and helped finish Thanksgiving dinner, then delivered the baby. One man described her as the \u201cMother Teresa of Five Points\u201d<\/a> since she cared so compassionately for everyone who needed her.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine her doing all this in the 1800s and early 1900s. I think of the adversity she faced. It was unbelievable,\u201d Ward-Gaines said. \u201cI embrace pioneers so much. They did things twice as hard as we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denver celebrated Dr. Justina Ford’s 150th birthday in 2021<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ford was born on Jan. 22, 1871, and Coloradans marked the 150th anniversary of Ford’s birth in 2021. (View tributes to Ford in the video below, courtesy of Sylvia Lambe, Lambe PR.)<\/p>\n