Celebrating Black History Month 2023 – A Look Back

During Black History Month, we pay tribute to our Black community by celebrating the many contributions they have made to Jackson and South Florida.

The Growth of South Florida’s Black Medical Community

Black physicians have served South Florida’s Black communities since 1896, the same year Miami became an official city. Denied entry to the Dade County Medical Association, Black doctors, dentists, and pharmacists throughout the region organized the Dade County Academy of Medicine in the early 1920s to have a space to discuss their profession and their patients’ needs. In early 2007, the academy renamed itself the James Wilson Bridges, MD, Medical Society, in honor of the first Black Jackson Memorial Hospital senior resident in obstetrics and gynecology, first Black fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the state of Florida, and first Black president of the Dade County Medical Association.

Celebrating 70 Years of Breaking Racial Barriers

Jackson Memorial Hospital opened the first maternity ward for Black patients in Dade County on January 22, 1953. Due to discrimination and misappropriated public resources, midwives delivered most Black babies at home prior to that time. Known as the Negro Maternity Ward, Jackson Memorial offered Black patients 26 beds and 26 bassinets.

That same year, Dazelle Dean Simpson, MD, made headlines as Jackson’s first Black pediatrician. She was also the first Black board-certified pediatrician in the state of Florida. Five years later, her husband, George Simpson, MD, became Jackson’s first Black surgeon. In 1995, following a 40-year career at Jackson, Dr. Dean Simpson retired from the hospital. In addition to their work at Jackson, she and her husband also spent more than four decades practicing in the communities of Overtown and Liberty City.