Mary E. Britton
| Mary Ellen Britton | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | April 16, 1855 Lexington, Kentucky, US |
| Died | August 27, 1925 Lexington, Kentucky, US |
| Nationality | United States |
| Known for | First African-American female physician in Lexington, Kentucky |
| Medical career | |
| Field | Hydrotherapy, electrotherapy |
Mary Ellen Britton (1855–1925) was an African-American physician, educator, suffragist, journalist and civil rights activist from Lexington, Kentucky. Britton was an original member of the Kentucky Negro Education Association, which formed in 1877. She was president of the Lexington Woman's Improvement Club, and later served as a charter member of the Ladies Orphan Society which founded the Colored Orphan Industrial Home in Lexington, in 1892. During her lifetime she accomplished many things through the obstacles she faced. After teaching black children in Lexington public schools, she worked as a doctor from her home in Lexington. She specialized in hydrotherapy, electrotherapy and massage; and, she was officially granted her license to practice medicine in Lexington, Kentucky in 1902, making her the first woman doctor to be licensed in Lexington.
Mary Ellen Britton was born as a free person of color on April 16, 1855. She was one of seven children of Laura and Henry Britton who lived on Mill Street, somewhere between Second and Third Streets which is now in the Gratz Park Historical District of Lexington, Kentucky. Contrary to the limited opportunities many other African-Americans of the time were allowed, she and her siblings—Susan J. (born 1850), Julia (born 1852), Mary Elizabeth (born 1855), Joseph (also known as Josiah, born 1856), Robert H. (born 1857), Martha (born 1860), William (born 1867) and Hattie (born 1868), Lucy (born ca. 1872), and Thomas Marshall (born 1873) — all acquired a classical education. Her father Henry was a freeborn carpenter (born around 1824) of Spanish/Indian heritage who later became a barber in Berea. Her mother, Laura, was a gifted singer and musician who had been well-educated under the protection of her mother who was an enslaved mistress to Kentucky statesman Thomas F. Marshall. Laura had been emancipated at the age of sixteen.
At a young age Britton was offered the best education possible for African American children in that time - attending private schools created out of subscriptions from Lexington's African-American professional class. In 1859, along with older sister Julia Britton Hooks (later known as a gifted musician and educator, as well as Berea's first African American teacher), Britton attended a branch school in Lexington started by Mr. William H. Gibson of Louisville, Kentucky. The family later moved to Berea, Kentucky where Laura Britton was hired as a matron at Berea College.
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