Dr. Helen Octavia Dickens articles
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| When | Why |
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| Mar-01-25 | Medical Pioneer |
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https://www.facs.org/about-acs/archives/past-highlights/dickens/
Helen Octavia Dickens,
Dr. Dickens was born in Dayton, OH, on February 21, 1909.
MD, FACS, is widely known for her contributions to the surgical field.
Both a surgeon and professor in obstetrics and gynecology, Dr. Dickens was the first female African-American Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, and paved the way for those that followed her.After additional training at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine and another short time at Provident, Dr. Dickens was certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1945—the first African-American board-certified OB/GYN in Philadelphia.
Dr. Dickens had several special interests throughout her historical career.
In 1967, she founded the teen clinic at the University of Pennsylvania for school-age mothers in the inner city, and went on to serve as director of the teen clinic and advocate for teen mothers throughout her career.
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
Her mother was a domestic servant, and her father had been a slave.
Dr. Dickens was an excellent student, and her desire to help improve the lives of others led her to enroll in medical school at the University of Illinois.
She graduated in 1933, the only black woman in her class.
She was the first black woman to become a full professor at Penn and the first black female physician in Philadelphia who became board-certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Dr. Dicken called for the use of pap smears to detect cervical cancer.
She wanted black women to have access to this test, and she personally visited churches in Philadelphia’s black community and performed the test for free.
Dr. Dickens’s belief in the pap smear, which was new at the time, had a strong influence on other physicians.
Pap smears are credited with saving millions of lives.
She also increased minority enrollment in the School of Medicine by over 2000% in a few years.
https://www.med.upenn.edu/evdresearch/helen-o-dickens.html
Dr. Dicken didn't set out to become an activist, but her life's work significantly improved the health - and lives - of women, particularly Black women.
In the family home in Dayton, Dickens's family set examples for hard work, education, and a spirit to succeed.
Her father, formerly enslaved, had taught himself to read and eventually how to read law, but the nature of the times limited him to janitorial work.
Her mother found employment as a domestic servant.
Both encouraged Helen and her brother to strive toward greater opportunity through education.
She recalled attending a "so-called White school," located closer to home than Dayton's Black school and then attended Crane Junior College in Chicago.
"I didn't see a barrier to becoming a doctor.
It never occurred to me that there were barriers," reflected Dickens in 1988.
But medical schools rejected her because she was a woman or because she was African American - and in one case, because she didn't have enough chemistry prerequisites.
In 1935, Dickens came to Philadelphia to work with Virginia Alexander, MD(opens in a new window) in the Aspiranto Health Home, a six-bed hospital and clinic located in Alexander's North Philadelphia row home.
Dickens moved into the home where Alexander's father also resided.
The practice primarily served the city's poor Black community, which came to the clinic for general medical care, emergency visits, obstetric and gynecologic care, and parenting classes.
Added March 01, 2025 at 8:45pm
by Dayciana S
Title: Medical Pioneer
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