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There was no special fanfare when Venus Romance Jones of Petersburg became the first black woman to graduate from Mary Washington College in June 1968.
The facility hadn’t been her first choice. She always wanted to be a doctor and had hoped to do undergraduate work at the University of Virginia, then attend medical school.
But U.Va. wouldn’t allow a “girl” in pre-med, and officials suggested she go to Mary Washington first. She did, then earned her medical degree from U.Va. in 1972.
Before and after a military career, Jones worked with the less fortunate. She provided medical care to American Indians in Phoenix, then joined the Air Force, where she was chief of neurology at three major military hospitals.
After she retired as a lieutenant colonel, she opened a neurology practice in a poor village on the Mississippi Delta.
Jones died three years later, in a 2001 car crash. Those who knew her said she made an incredible difference in the community.
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by clicking on the names below. |
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• Gabriel Prosser, inspired by the Bible |
• John J. Wright devoted leader, reader |
• Urbane Bass, city doctor |
• Sadie Combs, first teacher at Snell
• Philip Wyatt,
• Palmer Hayden,
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• Venus Jones, First black graduate of MWC |
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petitioning for change |
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Sources: "A Different Story" by Ruth Coder Fitzgerald; HistoryPoint.org of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library; The Free Lance-Star archives; State of Michigan Web site; African Within; The Kennedy Center; We Were Always Free By T.O. Madden Jr.; The Richmond Times-Dispatch; Life Magazine; Westmoreland County, Virginia. |
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