Josefa Zaratt

Josefa Zaratt (also Zarratt) (March 19, 1871 – August 4, 1962) was the first Black woman to graduate from Tufts Medical School.^[1] She was one of the earliest Black women physicians in the United States.^[2]

Josefa Zaratt
Dr. Zaratt in staff portrait of Douglass Hospital
Born	March 19, 1871 San Juan, Puerto Rico
Died	August 4, 1962(1962-08-04) (aged 91) Bronx, New York, USA
Alma mater	Tufts University School of Medicine (MD)
Occupation	Doctor

Life

Zaratt was born in 1871 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.^[3]

Zaratt studied at Tufts University School of Medicine,^[4] graduating in 1905.^[5] She then returned to Puerto Rico,^[6] but was denied a license to practice medicine there. She returned to the continental United States^[7] and passed the examination of the State Board of Registration in Medicine in Massachusetts.^[3]

She worked at Douglass Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1910.^[8] By 1923 she was practicing medicine in Springfield, Massachusetts^[9] and in 1932 she lived in Boston, Massachusetts.

Zaratt died on August 4, 1962, at Fordham Hospital in the Bronx, New York. aged 91.^[3] She was buried at Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Greenburgh, New York.