Throughout her life she faced racial and gender-based barriers to her medical education, training in all-female institutions which were run by the first generation of graduating female physicians.

[3] One of her sisters, Sarah Elizabeth Cole, married Henry L. Phillips, a prominent African American Episcopal priest, c. 1876.

[4] Cole attended high school at the Institute for Colored Youth where the curriculum that included Latin, Greek, and mathematics, graduating in 1863.

Nearly thirty years later, Blinn wrote an article detailing how crossing the 'color line' in Philadelphia nearly derailed Cole's studies at the college and her plans for a medical career.

With a clear and comprehensive view of her whole field of action, she has carried out her plans with the good sense and vigor which are a part of her character, while her cheerful optimism, her determination to see the best in every situation and in every individual, have created around her an atmosphere of sunshine that adds to the happiness and well being of every member of the large family.Cole practiced medicine for fifty years.