In 1870, Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward was the first African-American woman to ever earn a medical degree in New York state, and the third in the United States.

Dr. Smith McKinney’s professional accomplishments were numerous. She established her own private practice in Brooklyn which she ran from 1870 to 1895. During this time she co-founded the Brooklyn Women’s Homeopathic Hospital and Dispensary which served the African American community, completed post-graduate education at the Long Island Medical College Hospital in Brooklyn (1887-1888), practiced at the Brooklyn Home for Aged Colored People where she also served as a board member (1892-1895), and practiced at New York Medical College and Hospital for Women in Manhattan (1892-1896).

Dr. Smith McKinney specialized in prenatal care and childhood diseases and gave papers on both these topics.