A Look Back: Kappa History Midian O. Bousfield A Renaissance Man in Various Fields of Endeavor
By Kevin Scott, Grand Historian
W ell before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, Midian Othello Bousfield was contributing to the interests and benefit of Blacks in Chi- cago and across the country. He was a polymath; serving in diverse careers as a physician, military commander, businessman and leader of Chicago’s insurance industry. He enacted several endeavors for social change. He was an advocate for Black physicians, helping to pave a trail for them in the medical field. As a successful entrepreneur and business executive in the heart of the Black community, he served as an inspiration to what other Blacks could accomplish. He was a leader in the medical field and military who was elevated to the rank of colonel in the Army Medical Corps. Although he was best known in Chicago, he was also well renowned across the country. Bousfield was a native of Tipton, Missouri, born August 22, 1885. His father’s profession as a barber and busi- nessman possibly influenced his interest as an industrialist; and W.E.B. Du Bois’ activism perhaps inspired his work as an advocate for social and civil rights. He began working at the age of eleven, tak- ing up his father’s trade as a barber. Fol- lowing his graduation from high school, he and his family moved to Kansas City. He worked his way through undergradu- ate and post-graduate school, sustain- ing himself and paying for his tuition by barbering and waiting tables. After earning his bachelor’s degree from the University of Kansas in 1907, Bousfiled graduated with an M.D. from North-
western University Medical School in 1909.
The following year, he began his intern- ship at Howard University’s Freedman’s Hospital. He was one of the first four Black men appointed to the staff of the Old General Hospital in Kansas City. Bousfield then spent a year prospecting for gold in Brazil in 1911, and upon his return, he worked for the railroad for a year in the capacity of a barber, buffet porter and other odd jobs. He subse- quently returned to Kansas City in 1914 where he practiced medicine. That same year, Bousfield married St. Louis public school teacher Maudelle Tanner Brown, who became the first Black woman to graduate from the Uni- versity of Illinois, was Chicago Public Schools’ first Black principal (1928) and served as 6 th National President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. They moved
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