Helen Octavia Dickens

Helen Octavia Dickens (1909–2001) was the first African-American woman to be admitted to the American College of Surgeons. She was a doctor, professor of obstetrics and gynecology, and former associate dean of medicine.

Helen Dickens was born on February 21, 1909, in Dayton, Ohio. Her father, Charles Warren Dickens, a former slave and water boy during the Civil War, was raised by a Union colonel from the age of 9. He took the name Charles Dickens after meeting the British novelist. He was self educated and had a keen intellect, but prejudice confined him to janitorial work. Her mother, Daisy Jane Dickens (née Green), was a domestic servant to the Reynolds family of paper manufacturers. Both of Dickens' parents encouraged her to attend desegregated schools in order to get a good education. During her time at Crane Junior College, she sat at the front of her classes, to avoid the racist comments and gestures aimed at her by fellow students.

She achieved her B.S. from University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1932, and her M.D. in 1934. She was one of two women in her class and was the only African-American woman in her class. Helen benefited from the help of notable African-American mentors and was helped by Dr. Elizabeth Hill to register to the University of Illinois.

Helen Dickens interned at Chicago's Provident Hospital for two years, treating tuberculosis among the poor, and then became a resident in Obstetrics. She was drawn to Virginia M. Alexander, who founded the Aspiranto Health Home, which was based in a three-story North Philadelphia house. During this time she provided gynecological and obstetric care as well as general practice. She worked with poor and underprivileged people, in very difficult conditions. For example, in one instance, she arrived at the home of a woman in labor to find that there was no electricity. The bed had to be moved so the delivery could be carried out using the light from the street. To address such problems, Dr. Alexander installed four beds at the Aspiranto.

After working there for seven years, she wanted to further her education in gynecology and obstetrics, and spent a year at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She passed the board examinations and became the first female African American board-certified Ob/gyn in Philadelphia.

In 1943, Dickens was accepted into a residency at Harlem Hospital in New York City. She finished her residency in 1946 and was certified by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the same year.

In 1948, she became director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Philadelphia's racially segregated Mercy Douglass hospital, where she remained until 1967.

After leaving the hospital in 1967, Dickens opened a clinic at Penn that was devoted and specialized to helping and supporting teen parents. The clinic offered services such as group counseling, therapy, education, and prenatal care. After 2 years of the clinic being opened, in 1969, Helen was then named the dean for minority admissions. Over the course of 5 years, she helped increase the number of minority students at Penn from 3 to 64.

During her time, working for Penn, she eventually earned an honorary degree from them in 1982 and earned one back in 1979 from the Medical College of Pennsylvania.

Research and campaign work

While running the clinic, Dickens did extensive research regarding teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections, using her knowledge and results of her research to educate young mothers.

She also did a lot of work in cancer services and education. Dickens instigated a program, funded by the National Institute of Health, to carry out pap tests to detect cervical cancer.

During Dickens's career, she received a lot of awards and recognition for her work. Some of these awards included: Gimbel Philadelphia Award for "outstanding service to humanity," the Medical Woman of the Year, Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, Daisy Lumpkin Award, the Mercy Douglass Hospital Award, and the Sadie Alexander Award for community service by Delta Sigma Theta.

She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1986.

In 1991, she was awarded the most prestigious award at the Penn's Women of Color celebration. This award was named after her, Dr. Helen O. Dickens Lifetime Achievement Award. This award was given to candidates who had a long history of helping Women of Color in the Penn and Delaware Valley communities.

Dr. Helen O. Dickens married Dr. Purvis Henderson and had two children, Dr. Jayne Henderson Brown and Norman Henderson.

She donated papers from the latter part of her career to the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 (accession number 1994: 62) with a further donation accessioned in 2002 (accession number 2002:7).