Dr. Meta L. Christy

Las Vegas had a Black community but no doctor who would treat it when Meta Christy arrived in 1926. Her brother Oran had come for the 1912 Jack Johnson fight here and stayed, and after their mother died in 1924 he asked her to follow. She passed the New Mexico osteopathic boards in 1929 and opened her practice in a poor, mostly white working-class neighborhood, treating whoever came. The state osteopathic association honored her in 1956. She is buried in the town's Masonic Cemetery, and this marker went up in 2010.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Dr. Meta L. Christy (1895–1968) Meta L. Christy, DO, is recognized by the American Osteopathic Association as the first black osteopath. Dr. Christy graduated in 1921 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine as its first black graduate. The College gives an annual award in her name. She established her lifelong private practice with quiet dignity when there were no women physicians or osteopaths in local hospitals and few blacks in Las Vegas. Official Scenic Historic Marker New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative The New Mexico Historic Women Marker Initiative was founded in 2005 by members of the New Mexico Women's Forum in a statewide effort to recognize women's contributions to New Mexico history on the state's Official Scenic Historic Markers. The Initiative ensures that women's diverse histories will be remembered and told, and will inspire and provide a guide for future generations. The 2006 Legislature funded the project.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Montezuma Castle — 5.2 mi
  The railroad's turreted resort at the Las Vegas hot springs, burned twice in its first years, empty for most of a century, and now home to an international school.
• Fort Union National Monument — 24 mi
  Three forts in one prairie valley where the two branches of the Santa Fe Trail met: a log post, a star-shaped earthwork, and an adobe supply town that fed the army's wars.

More markers nearby

• Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert — 0.6 mi
• Las Vegas — 1.7 mi
• Hogbacks — 5.7 mi
• Fort Union National Monument — 13 mi