Black History Day 5: Robert Tanner Freeman And Ida Grey Nelson

As the celebration of black history month continues, it’s important to celebrate the lesser known figures that you don’t hear much about.

Today I present to you the first African American dentist and first African American female dentist, Robert Tanner Freeman and Ida Grey Nelson.

Freeman was born into slavery in 1846, as a child he became friends with Henry Bliss a local dentist in Washington D.C. He became his apprentice and continued up until his adulthood. Dr. Noble who had connections to Harvard Medical School encouraged Freeman to apply the school and by 1867 was accepted in. With his graduation in 1869 Freeman and another African American student George Franklin Grant became the first became the first black dentists .

Freeman made his way back to D.C. and opened his own practice. He became a pillar of the black community of D.C. because of his devotion to helping the African american youth. Unfortunately it was short lived when he contracted a water-borne disease in 1873 and died soon after. He was honored by the National Dental Association, an all black dental group which was founded in 1913.

Ida Gray Nelson was born in Clarksville, Tennessee, on March 4, 1867.  She was orphaned when her mother died in her early teens. Nelson’s white father played no role in her childhood or education.  After her mother’s death, Nelson was raised by her aunt.

Nelson’s aunt was 35, uneducated, and unable to read or write when she moved from Clarksville, Tennessee to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1867, with her four children. Gray supported the family by working as a seamstress and housing foster children. When she was in high school, she worked as a seamstress and dressmaker and in the dental office of Jonathan and William Taft.  Ida Gray graduated from Gaines Public High School in 1887 when she was 20 years old.

With the mentorship  provided by William Taft, Nelson became the first African American woman to graduate from a dental school.  Her ability to pass the entrance exam into the University of Michigan was aided by the experience she gained working in his dental office.  Gray enrolled in October 1887 and, three years later, she became the first African American woman to graduate with a Doctorate of Dental Surgery in the United States.

After graduation in 1890, she returned to Ohio and opened a private dental practice.  She remained in this practice until 1895 when she married Sanford Nelson. The couple then moved to Chicago where she  where she set up a practice serving men and women of all races. She also became the first African American, male or female, to practice dentistry in Chicago.

Nelson participated in a number of women’s organization and served as president of the Professional Women’s Club of Chicago.  She later retired from her dentistry practice sometime in the mid-1930s.

For any young black men and women who are looking to dentistry as their goal these are great examples to follow by because no matter what obstacles they had to face they always pulled through and reach their goals.