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Black History Month Talk Highlights Houston's First Black Doctor & CCVI Connection
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February 24, 2025Black History Month Talk Highlights Houston's First Black Doctor & CCVI Connection
In observance of Black History Month, Sr. Pauline Troncale, CCVI, delivered a presentation to Sisters and Villa employees about Dr. Edward B. Ramsey, Houston's first black physician, and the CCVI Sisters who served alongside him on Feb. 19th at the Villa de Matel. Dr. Ramsey, who was born into slavery in Georgia in 1852, was emancipated when he was 9 years old following the Civil War. He had a hunger for learning and attended university in Georgia and later medical school at Meharry Medical College, an early medical school tasked with educating black physicians in that highly segregated era. Sickness was endemic to the population at that time due to lack of care. At the invitation of a clergyman, Dr. Ramsey came to Houston in 1883, becoming the city's first black doctor. His path crossed with CCVI Sisters Andrew Bonjour, Ursula Haugh and Angelique Ahern in the 1890s during a terrible outbreak of Smallpox. The epidemic forced city officials to open the "Pest House," pest being short for pestilence, to quarantine patients stricken with the highly contagious disease. It was located in what were considered the outskirts of Houston at the time, near present day Buffalo Bayou and W. Dallas St. The assignment entailed hardship and risk, and city officials had difficulty finding medical professionals to staff the facility. Dr. Ramsey, who himself contracted the disease at one point, was recruited for the work as well as three, possibly four Sisters, who were sent from St. Joseph's Hospital to tend to patients. Many deaths occurred during this time; the bodies of patients were buried in an adjacent cemetery and were being discovered in unmarked graves as recently as the year 2000. Sr. Pauline's various sources painted a portrait of Dr. Ramsey as a generous and faithful man who served God and his community with great vigor. In fact, he died of a heart attack while attending a patient - on his 75th birthday - in 1927. In her remarks, Sr. Pauline said that it was important to remember and recount these sorts of past experiences because they greatly influence who we are today and who we will become. "However," she added, "the way we view these past experiences can have an even greater impact." May Dr. Ramsey, the CCVI Sisters, and all the unnamed others who dared together to serve the most ill on the margins of Houston, TX inspire us today to follow in their example. - CCVI Communications
