Josie English Wells (1876-20 March 1921)[1][2] was an African American physician and one of three women to graduate from Meharry Medical College in 1904.
[7][6] She spoke at club meetings, first talking about the struggles women faced while entering the medical profession and encouraging others to join, and also speaking about projects like supporting a local kindergarten.
[6] Wells became the general physician for Walden University, which Meharry was originally part of, and became the superintendent for the training program for nurses at the nearby Mercy Hospital.
During this time, Wells, along with John T. Wilson and Robert Fulton Boyd, Mercy's founder, organized Meharry doctors in protest against their institution.
Wells said she was not treated equally to the other doctors, and Wilson wanted to be compensated better for his surgeries, while they all believed Meharry and Mercy's financial relationship was inequitable.
[6] Wells was also the first woman on the Meharry Medical College faculty, and played an active role in fundraising for Hubbard Hospital, to which her sister Mary was also a donor.
[1] Wells' daughter, Alma, married John T. Givens, a scholarship in whose name is awarded annually to a student in the School of Medicine.