Josephine English
American gynecologist (1920-2011)
Josephine English (December 17, 1920 - December 18, 2011) was an American gynecologist who was the first black woman to open a private practice in New York. She was also known for her work in real estate and health care, in addition to her philanthropy towards the arts. Her practice was jeopardized in 1995 due to financial issues with the Adelphi Medical Center. Many of her establishments have risked foreclosure, and lacked repair funds.
Biography
English was born on December 17, 1920, to Jennie English and Whittie Sr. in Ontario, Virginia. She moved to Englewood, New Jersey, in 1939. Her family was one of the first black families in Englewood. She attended Hunter College for her bachelor's degree until 1949, and earned her Master's in Psychology at New York University. She initially wanted to become a psychiatrist, but ended up choosing gynecology after discovering her interest at Meharry Medical College where she earned her medical degree in gynecology.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q34370651. VIAF identifies the subject as 3485155769089927880006. The Library of Congress control number is n2019025768. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1920, 2011, 1995 and 1939.
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This entry incorporates text from “Josephine English” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.