William Lane Watkins
William Lane Watkins | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | William Lane Watkins November 26, 1852 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | December 31, 1929 Mitchellville, Maryland |
| Spouse | Jane E Turner |
| Children | Sue Watkins, Willie Watkins, Maud Watkins, Harry Brooke Watkins |
| Parent(s) | William H Watkins, Susan M Bowie (also spelled Buoy, Bowy, Bone or Bonie) |
| Residences | |
| Alma mater | New Bedford High School Boston University School of Medicine |
| Profession | Physician, schoolteacher |
William Lane Watkins was an African American physician and schoolteacher. He practiced medicine and managed a school in Prince George's County, Maryland, and was the first black man to graduate from the Boston University School of Medicine.
Family, early life and education
William L Watkins was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1852. His father, William H Watkins, was born in Baltimore in about 1821 and is believed to have been white. His mother, Susan M Bowie, was mixed-race or black, and born in Prince George's County in about 1829. His mother's name, spelled multiple ways in different records over the course of her life, has led to speculation that she may have been born in or near the town of Bowie, Maryland, in Prince George's County, but no recorded evidence of her family history has been found. Prince George's County, in southern Maryland, was tobacco-producing country, where the majority of black residents in the early- to mid-1800s were enslaved[1]. Some reports indicate that Susan Bowie was herself a slave[2], and even if she were free, marriage between black and white persons was illegal in Maryland at this time. William H Watkins may have called himself mulatto or black in order to marry Susan Bowie: he is listed as such in later census records.
The family moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts when William L Watkins was a child, and his father worked as a city messenger there. William Lane Watkins attended New Bedford High School, graduating in 1871. In 1873 he became a member of the first class to be accepted into the newly formed Boston University School of Medicine, and he graduated in 1876, the first black man to receive an MD from the school. (Rebecca Lee Crumpler, who received an MD from the New England Female Medical College in 1864, is considered the school's first black female graduate.)
Career
Unable to establish a medical practice in Massachusetts[3], Watkins moved back to Baltimore after receiving his degree and found work in the U.S. Customs Office, where he met a trustee of the newly established Mount Nebo (Colored) Elementary School in Queen Anne Town (now Queen Anne, Maryland) in Prince George's County. He accepted a position as schoolteacher and boarded for a time with Wilson Turner, another of the trustees, and his family[4]. In 1878, he married Wilson Turner's daughter Jane E Turner, and the two eventually had four children. The family faced down white opposition in order to move into the Queen Anne city limits from the countryside where most black residents of the county then lived[4]. He served as the local doctor while continuing to manage the school, and was politically active in the Maryland Republican party. He was one of the first African Americans to serve as a delegate to the Republican Central Committee for the state[2], and was nominated as a candidate from Bowie as late as 1921.
Later life
William Watkins' two daughters died in the 1918-1919 flu epidemic, leaving him and his wife to raise two grandsons[5]. He lived in Prince George's County until his death in 1929 at age 77.
References
External links
Category:People from Baltimore Category:People from Boston
- ^ Maryland State Archives (2007). A Guide to the History of Slavery in Maryland (PDF). Annapolis, Maryland: Maryland State Archives. p. 13.
- ^ a b "African-American Historic and Cultural Resources in Prince George's County, Maryland by Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission - Issuu". issuu.com. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
- ^ "When Society Discovered that Dr. Watkins was a Negro". portofharlem.net. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
- ^ a b "Dr. Watkins, The Colored Who Defied Housing Segregation Circa 1880". portofharlem.net. Retrieved 2022-04-05.
- ^ "The Flu Shuns Us, Says Health Doctor". portofharlem.net. Retrieved 2022-04-05.