On this day in Alabama history: First woman graduated from UA medical school

Portrait of Jimmie Ethel Montgomery, c. 1925. (Corolla Yearbook, University of Alabama-Birmingham Archives)

May 26, 1925

In September 1923, Jimmie Ethel Montgomery entered the University of Alabama‘s medical school in Tuscaloosa as its first full-time female student. Two years later, on May 26, 1925, Montgomery received a bachelor’s degree in medicine from the two-year basic sciences program at the university, becoming the first female graduate of the University of Alabama medical school. In 1928, Montgomery received her M.D. from the University of Minnesota. She went on to work as a general practitioner in Bibb County. Montgomery died in 1982. The recently renovated Hilton Birmingham, located in the heart of the University of Alabama at Birmingham campus, features the Montgomery Room, honoring Jimmie Montgomery’s historic accomplishments and educational endeavors.

Read more at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.

Courtesy of Alabama NewsCenter

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