By Ryan Makuch
This Black History Month, AFC Ann Arbor want to take time to shine light on those involved in Black History within our community and our club. We will be featuring members of either the AFC Ann Arbor Family or the Ann Arbor-community each week in an attempt to celebrate the accomplishments of each of these men and women.
Ida Gray was born over 150 years ago, but she will remain in United States history as the first-ever Black woman to become a dentist in the country’s history. Gray was born in 1867 in Clarksville, Tennessee, to a teenage mother who died when she was in her early-teens. An orphan, she was sent to Cincinnati to live with her aunt where she would attend the segregated public school and graduate in 1887.
During this high school period is when her love for dentistry came into bloom. Gray’s part-time job during high school was in the dentist’s office of Jonathan Taft. Initially the dean of the Ohio College of Dentistry, he moved to the University of Michigan to help establish their dental school. Gray’s three years’ experience under Taft helped her ace the entrance exam and she would gain acceptance to the university.
Gray’s marks at Michigan were strong and in just three years she would become the first Black woman to graduate from an American university with a Doctorate of Dental Surgery in June of 1890. She would return to Cincinnati and establish her own practice, something that, at the time, received widespread press coverage in newspapers and the writings of the time.
Gray would get married and ultimately move her office to Chicago in 1895. She would continue to serve her community as a dentist, but Gray was heavily involved in social issues as well. She would serve as Vice President for the Professional Women’s Club of Chicago, an organization that is still active today. She was also a member of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, which ran the only shelter for Black women in the city of Chicago.
Not only was she involved on a level of societal change, but Gray influenced individuals as well. One of her patients, Olive Henderson, would become the second Black woman to practice dentistry in the city of Chicago in 1908 with her graduation from Northwestern, with only Gray coming before her.
Gray’s impact in Ann Arbor continues to live on. The University of Michigan honors her memory with the awarding of the ‘Ida Gray Award’ each year to a student, or students, that “have contributed to the advancement of diversity and who have improved the climate for work, learning, research and patient care.” Gray would pass away in 1953 in Chicago at the age of 86.
Gray’s ability to pave the way has led to many, many, opportunities, and places Ann Arbor at the center of dentistry history. The legacy of Ida Gray will live on in the dental profession, but there is still work to be done. The University of Michigan had 669 students in its Fall 2020 class in the School of Dentistry. Only 36 of them identified as Black, and 21 of them were women, according to their diversity metrics. A WEMU feature on Ida Gray last year noted that just 5.9% of students in the Doctor of Dental Surgery program are Black, as well.
The issue of underrepresentation in medical fields remains a troubling and difficult one for Black men and women. Black women are notably two to six times more likely to die from childbirth complications than white women. Many medical books and lessons used for instruction have propagated false ideas like the idea that Black people felt less pain. There are several organizations working to ensure that Black people are represented in medical fields in the future.
We celebrate the legacy of Ida Gray and the role that our city played in her life, however we also want to ensure that those that come after her are given the opportunities they need to flourish in a positive environment.