[citation needed] Grier moved to Nashville, Tennessee to study teaching at Fisk University.

[2] In order to be able to afford her tuition fees, she alternated every year of studying with working; after enrolling in 1884, she graduated in 1891.

[1] Grier wrote to the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1890 to explain that she had very little money and inquired whether assistance "might be provided for an emancipated slave to receive any help into so lofty a profession.

[4] After graduating from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1897,[contradictory] Grier moved to Atlanta, Georgia and applied for a license to practice medicine in Fulton County, making her the first African American woman to hold a medical license in the state of Georgia.

"[5] After graduating from medical school, Grier "struggled to build a private practice," supplementing her income with teaching jobs.