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To Bear Fruit For Our Race

Story Experience (1900-1926, Section 1)

Story Experience (1900-1926, Section 1)

One of the first physicians in Houston was Dr. Franklin Robey

Dr. Franklin Robey as an infant with his mother, Ellen

Young Franklin Robey and his mother, Ellen (Courtesy of Dr. John Stone and Family)

Dr. Franklin Robey moved to Houston in 1887 to open his medical practice. His arrival in this Texas city marked the end of a remarkable personal journey. Dr. Robey had been born a slave. The end of the Civil War brought freedom, but he and other African Americans found only limited opportunities to pursue their education thereafter - at a few northern schools or at all-black colleges across the South.

Dr. Robey attended the University of Chicago School for Physicians and Surgeons before moving to Meharry Medical College in Nashville, where he graduated in 1883.  

1887

Houston had only two African-American physicians, including Dr. E.B. Ramsey, the first African-American physician to work in Houston. They laid the foundations for black health care in the city.

Hear Mrs. Stone speak about her great-grandfather, Dr. Franklin Robey.

Dr. Robey died in 1903, but he left a personal legacy that stretches across the tumultuous twentieth century. His two great-great granddaughters, Dr. Faith Stone and Dr. Enid Stone, are physicians in Houston today.

 
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