Best Of: Dr. Sarah Loguen Fraser, an Ex-Slave’s Daughter, Becomes a Celebrated Doctor

Born in 1850, Sarah Loguen found her calling as a child, when she helped her parents and Harriet Tubman bandage the leg of an injured person escaping slavery. When the Civil War ended and Reconstruction opened up opportunities for African Americans, Loguen became one of the first Black women to earn a medical license. But quickly, racist Jim Crow laws prevailed. At the urging of family friend Frederick Douglass, Loguen married and, with her new husband, set sail for the Dominican Republic where more was possible for a person of color. This is her story.

This Best Of episode, which first aired in September 2023, is also available in a Spanish adaptation, narrated by Laura Gómez.