August 16, 1974: Dead Within Hours

Dorothy Kirkland yearbook photo

Dorothy Kirkland Brown, age 37, underwent an abortion at Friendship Medical Clinic in Chicago on August 16, 1974. 

According to public records, this married Black woman had led a sad life. Her mother had died when she was only a year old. The 1940 census has 2-year-old Dorothy living with her maternal grandparents along with many of their other grandchildren. Dorothy was the youngest. The others were ages 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, and 18. Neither grandparent is listed as having an occupation in the census documents. 

In spite of this rough start, Dorothy was determined to make her life better. She graduated from Dunbar Vocational High School in 1955 with primary studies in office practice. She had been active in the Literary Guild, Junior Red Cross, and Mixed Chorus.

Dorothy had a 15-year old daughter and another daughter whose information is not available in public records. Dorothy worked as a teacher's aide in a high school in the Chicago area.  

Within hours, at 11:32 p.m., she was pronounced dead at Chicago's Tabernacle Hospital. Her death was attributed to "shock related to hemorrhagic necrosis of uterus."

Julia Rogers and Evelyn Dudley also died after abortions at Friendship Medical Center.

Watch Death at Civil Rights Pioneer's Seedy Clinic on YouTube.

Sources:

• Death certificate
• Friendship Medical Center, Ltd. and T.r.m. Howard, plaintiffs-appellants, v. the Chicago Board of Health et al., Defendants-appellees, 505 F.2d 1141 (7th Cir. 1975)
• "12 dead after abortions in state's walk-in clinics," Chicago Sun-Times, November 19, 1978
• "T.R.M. Howard: Civil Rights Rabble-Rouser, Abortion Provider," Dissent, May 16, 2013