Was the first African American woman elected a fellow of the American College of
Surgeons.She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Atlanta University in 1927,as valedictorian of her class,amd Master of Science degree in psychology from Columbia University.After working for a time with the YWCA,Myra won the first Walter Gray Crump $10,000 four year scholarship to New York Medical College.She earned her Doctor of Medicine degree in 1933 and interned and served her residency at Harlem Hospital.In 1943,Myra became the first woman to perform open heart surgery,the ninth operation of its kind in the world.In the 1960s,she began to work on breast cancer developing a slower x-ray process that could detect more accurately differences in the density of tissue and thus help discover tumors much earlier.Early in career,Myra was a member of the New York Committee on Discrimination,she resigned in 1944 when the governor ignored the anti-discrimination legislation the committee had proposed.After her retirement in 1970,Myra served on the New York State Workman's Compensation Board.Myra also helped the New York State Fair Employment Practices Committee and the NAACP,and Planned Parenthood.She married the well known painter Charles Henry Alston in 1943.They did not have any children.Myra died of lung cancer at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.Charles died a few months later.
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