Sophie Redmond

Jeane Sophie Everdine Redmond (14 January 1907 – 18 September 1955) was a Surinamese physician and activist.

Biography Sophie Redmond was born in Paramaribo as the daughter of a teacher of the Moravian Church. Her father wanted her to become a teacher too, but she insisted on becoming a physician. Her father thought that she would not be able to become a doctor as a black woman. After her final exam in 1925 at the Hogere Burgerschool, at that time the highest form of secondary education in Suriname, she began her studies at the Geneeskundige School, although the principal of the school initially refused to enrol her. In 1935, after ten years, she graduated. She was the college's fifth female graduate and the first black woman. She opened a practice in Paramaribo. In 1941, she married the distiller Louis Emile Monkau (1906–2007); the marriage remained childless.

As a physician, Redmond often treated needy patients free of charge in her practice, which is why she was called sie datra fu pôtisma (“doctor of the poor”).

Since 2013, the cultural foundation Between The Lines has organized the Dokter Sophie Redmond Lezing in Amsterdam every year, at which prominent women speak and in which the Gouden Vioolspeld (Golden Violin needle) is awarded to a woman who is considered a role model due to exceptional social and/or cultural achievements.