In 2000, SUNY Upstate Medical University celebrated the 150th birthday of Dr. Sarah Loguen, one of nation's first African American women physicians.
An
1876 graduate of our College of Medicine, Dr. Loguen was celebrated with a
street named in her honor, the establishment of an annual named scholarship, a portrait dedication, installation of a historical marker, and a lecture series.
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Sarah Loguen MD
(1850-1933) was the daughter of abolitionists Caroline Storum and the Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen, a former slave, Sarah grew up in a family that helped 1,500 African Americans on their dangerous escapes from slavery to freedom. Sarah Loguen graduated from Syracuse University's College of Medicine (now SUNY Upstate Medical University) in 1876, interned at the Women's Hospital of Philadelphia and the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston from 1876 to 1878, then practiced medicine in Washington, DC.
In 1882, Dr. Loguen married Charles Fraser, a pharmacist in the Dominican Republic (then known as Santo Domingo), whom she met through Frederick Douglass. After moving to Santo Domingo, Dr. Loguen Fraser learned Spanish and underwent an examination that, along with her medical diploma and related credentials, enabled her to practice medicine in her new home, thereby becoming the first woman doctor in the Dominican Republic. After her husband's death in 1894, Dr. Loguen Fraser was able to run the family pharmacy in Santo Domingo because of her experience working at the New England Hospital's pharmacy.
In 1908, Dr. Loguen Fraser was hired as resident physician at the Blue Plains Industrial School for Boys but when her nephew, Leon Foster, and daughter discovered she was being treated like a cook and a maid, they took her away from the school against the protests of the school's administration. In 1911, Dr. Loguen Fraser returned to Washington, DC for the rest of her life. She continued to practiced medicine twice a week at the Woman's Clinic on the corner of 13th and Tea streets, NW. In 1926, the 76-year-old Dr. Loguen Fraser was a guest at Howard University in honor of the 50th anniversary of her graduation from medical school. Dr. Loguen Fraser is buried in Lincoln Cemetery in Washington, DC. When news of her death reached Santo Domingo, a mass was held, flowers put on her husband's grave, and flags were flown at half mast for nine days.
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— February
