Photo: Courtesy Johari Williams, granddaughter of Dr. Edith Irby Jones.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – Dr. Edith Irby Jones, the first black student to
enroll at an all-white medical school in the south and later the first female president of the National Medical Association, has died. She was 91.
Jones’ daughter Myra Jones Romain said Jones died Monday of natural causes.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, which Jones integrated in
1948, also announced her death in a post on its website Tuesday.
Jones was the first black female resident at Baylor College of Medicine in
Houston.
Romain said Jones taught and practiced medicine until her retirement in 2013.
In addition to practicing medicine for 61 years, Jones was also a prominent activist as a member of the “Freedom Four,” encouraging people in Arkansas to join the civil rights movement.
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