Susan McKinney Steward

From 1906, she worked as college physician at the African Methodist Episcopal Church's Wilberforce University in Ohio.

In 1911, she attended the Universal Race Congress in New York, where she delivered a paper entitled "Colored American Women".

One possibility is that losing two of her brothers during the Civil War could have caused her to seek out a career where she could prevent other people from dying.

Although McKinney's father was a wealthy pig farmer who could have easily afforded her tuition costs, she preferred to pay for her education herself.

The first one published in 1883 over a case that involved a woman who was in charge of taking care of her burn suffering mother.

Marasmus was known as a disease that is caused by unsuitable food, vomiting, diarrhea, worms, and inheriting syphilis.

Steward advocated for homeopathic treatment for children and infants suffering from Marasmus because they stood a better chance of recovery.

Steward specialized in childhood disease, the way she handled Marasmus cases gained her recognition for her skill and knowledge.

McKinney-Steward's medical career focused on prenatal care and childhood disease where she worked with patients of all races.

[13] She sat on the board of and practiced medicine at the Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People and served on the staff at New York Medical College and Hospital for Women in Manhattan.

[14][10] By 1906, she and her second husband, Theophilus Gould Steward, found positions at the African Methodist Episcopal Church's Wilberforce University in Ohio, where she worked as college physician.

In 1911 she attended the Universal Race Congress in London, where she delivered a paper entitled "Colored American Women".

The Women's Loyal Union worked to bring to light the civil and social status of African Americans[16] and to alert others of the injustice of denying any citizen from any class or race of their unalienable rights.

In 1879, when Francis Willard became president, they broadened their scopes to more social reform causes, such as women's suffrage, child-labor, public health, anti-prostitution and international peace.

Four years after her previous husband's death, in 1896, Susan remarried to United States Army Buffalo Soldier and chaplain, Theophilus Gould Steward.

[19] Theophilus Steward stated that Susan "entered heartily into the work among the soldiers and became an excellent step mother to [his] children.

[20] Many people spoke at her funeral, including Hallie Quinn Brown, the president of Wilberforce University, Dr. William Scarborough, and author Dr. W. E. B.

African-American women physicians from New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut also honored her by naming their chapter of the National Medical Association after her in 1976.

In the summer of 2020, author Kaitlyn Greenidge wrote a novel called Libertie with an excerpt named "Doers of the World."

This excerpt is a short fiction story based on the life of Susan as it follows a girl named Libertie who watches her mother, Cathy, take care of and treat patients.

In this story Cathy is modeled after Susan as she experiences many of the same hardships as she did and follows her journey in exploring the limits of care.

McKinney-Steward's burial site at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.