N. Louise Young manuscript collection

Dr. N. Louise Young

The only daughter of Howard E. and Estelle Hall Young, Nellie Louise Young (1907-1997) holds the distinction of being Maryland’s first practicing African American female physician. Her father's business--Young's Pharmacy located at Druid Hill Avenue and Hoffman Street in West Baltimore, Maryland--was the city's first African American owned and operated pharmacy. Dr. Young attended the Colored High and Training School (now Frederick Douglass High School) and following her graduation in 1924, she enrolled in Howard University. After completing her undergraduate studies in just three years, she advanced to the University's School of Medicine and obtained her medical degree in 1930. After completing her internship at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. in 1931, Dr. Young opened her own practice in offices above her father's business in West Baltimore. She was appointed staff physician at the Maryland Training School for Colored Girls from 1933 to 1940.

Initially, Dr. Young's medical specialization was pediatrics but she switched to gynecology and became the only African American physician to receive training in birth control at the Baltimore Birth Control Clinic. In 1938, she opened a Planned Parenthood Clinic with funding from the Baltimore Birth Control Clinic at 1523 McCulloh Street. It was one of only three such clinics then staffed entirely by African Americans in the entire country. Dr. Young was granted a residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Provident Hospital in 1948 and beginning in 1950 she served as chief of the hospital’s obstetrics department until 1963. During her 52 years of medical practice, she also served on numerous city and state medical committees as well as worked at several other Baltimore hospitals until her retirement in 1984.

Dr. Young, like her parents, was a supporter of civil rights. She served as a member of the Mayor of Baltimore’s Task Force on Civil Rights. During the administration of Mayor Theodore McKeldin, she sat on the city’s Hospital Integration Subcommittee. Dr. Young also acted as Maryland’s chairperson of the Committee to Prevent Passage of Voluntary Sterilization Laws, laws similar to what had been enacted against the Jewish population in Nazi Germany.

Reverend Alfred Young

Born enslaved in Cambridge, Maryland, Alfred Young (1850-1928) was emancipated in 1864. Young moved to Baltimore where he married Emma Jane Carpenter Sorrell. The couple had fourteen children, ten boys and four girls. Notes from a family history recount that “three of the boys became pharmacists, and seven were musicians. Two of the girls became teachers.”

In 1876, Young became a licensed Methodist Episcopal preacher and later graduated with a theology degree from Howard Univeristy. Reverend Young served at numerous churches throughout Maryland – from Reisterstown and Lutherville in Baltimore County to Sandy Springs in Montgomery County. His most prestigious appointment, however, was in Baltimore City where he presided over the Sharp Street Memorial Church for two years.

Howard E. Young

The fourth child of Reverend Alfred and Emma Young, Howard E. Young (1871-1945) was the first African American licensed as a pharmacist in Maryland. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland and attended M Street High School in Washington, D.C. After receiving a degree in pharmacy from Howard University, Young returned to Baltimore in 1895. In 1900, he opened Baltimore’s first African American owned and operated pharmacy--Young's Pharmacy--located at Druid Hill Avenue and Hoffman Street. Young married Estelle Hall in 1905 and the couple had three children.

The Youngs were actively involved in the fight for civil rights. Howard Young served as the Secretary-Treasurer of Maryland's Niagara Movement, which was a precursor organization to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Estelle Young established a Colored Women's Suffrage Club in West Baltimore and became its first president in 1915.

Estelle Hall Young

A native of Georgia, Estelle Hall (1884-1938) trained to be a teacher at Spelman College--where she studied under W.E.B. DuBois--and the Atlanta University. She taught in Atlanta until she moved to Baltimore in 1905 and married Howard E. Young.

Estelle Young devoted herself to civic causes in the Baltimore area. She founded a Colored Women's Suffrage Club, also known as the Progressive Suffrage Club, in West Baltimore and became its first president in 1915. She was also an active member of the DuBois Circle and hosted meetings at her home.