"Eliza Ann Grier(?-1902)

Was born a slave,but became emancipated and eventually earned her M.D.,becoming in 1898 the first African American woman to practice medicine in Georgia.Little is known of Ann early life beyond her growing up in Atlanta.In 1883, nearly twenty years later after her emancipation,She entered Fisk University in Nashville with the goal of becoming a teacher.She earned a degree in education from Fisk eight years later in 1881 because she took every other year off to pick cotton and perform other work to earn her tuition to continue studies.Shortly before graduating from Fisk,she decided wanted to become a medical doctor.She wrote to the dean of the women's college of Pennsylvania requesting information about tuition and the possibility of pursuing advanced medical education.Eliza indicated that she wished to become a medical doctor because she could benefit her race more as a physician than as a teacher.She hoped for both admission and financial assistance.The college admitted Eziza but did not provide any help,prompting her to the strategy she employed at Fisk, alternately working and studying for eight years until she completed her medical degree.In 1897,after graduating from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania,Dr.Eliza returned to Atlanta.In 1898 she wrote "some of the best white doctors in the city have welcomed me and say that they will give me an even chance in the profession.That is all i ask.BY 1899, however,She moved her practice to Greenville,South Carolina where she specialized in obstetrics and gyneology.In 1901 she contracted influenza and could not see patients for six weeks.Facing the loss of her practice,Dr.Grier wrote a plea for financial assistance to Susan B. Anthony.The famous suffragist could help her but sympathetcally forwarded her request to the Women's Medical College.It is known if the college provided help.Tragically after strugging for eight years to become a doctor  Dr. Eliza died in 1902,after only five years of medical practice.