Dr. Helen O. Dickens Research

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“Changing the Face of Medicine | Helen Octavia Dickens.” U.S. National Library of Medicine

Dr. Dickens was the first African American woman admitted to American College of Surgeons.

In 1950, Dr. Helen Dickens was the first African American woman admitted to the American College of Surgeons. The daughter of a former slave, she would sit at the front of the class in medical school so that she would not be bothered by the racist comments and gestures made by her classmates. By 1969 she was associate dean in the Office for Minority Affairs at the University of Pennsylvania, and within five years had increased minority enrollment from three students to sixty-four.

Dr. Dickens returned to Philadelphia in 1948 as director of the Mercy Douglass Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and, in 1950, became the first African American-woman fellow of the American College of Surgeons. Toward the end of her directorship in the late 1960s, Dickens also taught at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the next twenty years, she rose through the ranks, from instructor, through to professor, culminating in her appointment as professor emeritus in 1985. At the same time, she served on the staff of the Woman's Hospital in Philadelphia and later, the faculty of the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Helen Octavia Dickens was born in 1909, in Dayton, Ohio. Her father, Charles Warren Dickens, a former slave and water boy during the Civil War, was raised by a Union colonel from the age of 9. A self-educated man, he took the name Charles Dickens after meeting the famous english novelist. Although he had "read law" and had a keen intellect, prejudice confined him to janitorial work. Her mother, Daisy Jane Dickens, was a domestic servant to the Reynolds family of paper manufacturers.

“The Helen O. Dickens, MD Presidential Professorship.” The Helen O. Dickens, MD Presidential Professorship | Endowed Professorships | Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens (1909-2001) was a pioneer in academic medicine and health equity. She was the Perelman School of Medicine’s first Black, female professor. The clinical programs and community outreach she began made a wide and long-lasting impact on some of Philadelphia’s most critical health issues: cancer screening, teen pregnancy, contraception, sexual health, and family planning.

She began her career in Philadelphia delivering babies to women living in poverty. To further her knowledge of OB/GYN, she studied for a year at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine and passed the board examinations in 1945. She was the first Black, female board-certified obstetrician-gynecologist in Philadelphia. Over her career, Dr. Dickens held the positions of Director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mercy Douglass Hospital and Chief of OB/GYN at Women's Hospital. In 1956, she joined the Perelman School’s faculty in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, becoming the School’s first Black, female full professor.

In 1999, to recognize the 50 years Dr. Dickens devoted to healing, helping and guiding women, the women’s health clinic at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania was named the Helen O. Dickens Center for Women’s Health. Dr. Dickens helped to shape medicine through her active involvement in local, national, and international professional societies. She was a member of the Pan American Medical Women's Association and served as President from 1968 to 1970. She also served on the Board of Directors for many organizations, including the American Cancer Society, the Children's Aid Society, and the Devereaux Foundation.

“Fascinating Facts from the College: Helen Octavia Dickens Paved the Way for Surgeons Who Followed Her.” American College of Surgeons| Meghan Kennedy|

Dr. Dickens was born in Dayton, OH, on February 21, 1909. After graduating from high school, she was accepted at Crane Junior College in Chicago, IL, and was later accepted at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago. She graduated in 1934 as the only African-American woman in a class of 137 students.

After graduating, Dr. Dickens performed her residency in obstetrics at Provident Hospital in Chicago, IL, from 1933 to 1935 and then joined Dr. Virginia Alexander in a birthing-home practice in Philadelphia, PA, for seven years.

She also initiated a project that brought temporary cancer detection facilities into Philadelphia’s inner city and implemented a project funded by the National Institutes of Health that encouraged doctors to perform Pap smears to test for cervical cancer in women.

Dr. Dickens died in December 2001, and her personal papers were donated to the University of Pennsylvania Archives and Records Center. For more information on Dr. Dickens and her accomplishments, visit their website.

DMU Timestamp: February 21, 2025 18:26

DMU Timestamp: February 26, 2025 22:37