Black History Month Part 1 – Delilah Leontium Beasley  

I’m a Black Massage Therapist, but I’m not the First. Who Was?

Delilah Leontium Beasley was born some time around 1867 (possibly 1871) in Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father, Daniel Beasley, was an engineer and her mother, Margaret Harris, raised her five children at home. Her parents died when she was a teenager, so Beasley went to work. She sought employment that would provide her a living and a modicum of respectability. 

Working as a personal maid for white women, she trained as a hair dresser and later as a massage therapist specializing in nursing care. In 1883 she began her role as a reporter for the Black newspaper the Cleveland Gazette.

We know she began her massage studies in Chicago. She then returned to Ohio and did formal course work in hydrotherapy and nursing. Notably, she also studied medical gymnastics, an early form of physical therapy that originated in Sweden and came to prominence in the US during the 1850s. Beasley is credited in some quarters as America’s first Black massage therapist.

Next post will feature America’s first Black cardiologist, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams.

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