Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward and Sarah J. S. Tompkins Garnet were notable African American women in Brooklyn known for their groundbreaking contributions in education and medicine. Steward became the first Black woman to practice medicine in New York, graduating as valedictorian and establishing a notable practice, while her sister Garnet made history as the first Black female principal in NYC public schools. Their achievements are deeply rooted in their upbringing in Weeksville, a thriving community known for its strong emphasis on uplift and support within the Black community during a time of systemic challenges.
She's working as a teacher, and it's her own income that is paying her way through medical school," says Dominique Jean-Louis, Chief Historian at the Brooklyn Public Library's Center for Brooklyn History.
It's easy to understand how they become trailblazers in their field. And also become national and even international symbols of what Black women are capable of," Jean-Louis tells CBS News New York reporter Hannah Kliger.
The world they're growing up in is a world of Black uplift, right, where people are not only trying to do well for themselves, trying to achieve in a world that has obstacles that are specific to Black people, but they're also trying to uplift their neighbors," Jean-Louis explains.
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