News

Celebrating Black History Month with LACMA Leaders

BHM Features.png

Celebrating Black History Month with LACMA Leaders

LACMA leaders are the foundation of what our organization stands for. As we continue to celebrate Black History Month, we spoke with three leaders about their experiences and how they are celebrating.

 A word from C. Freeman, MD, MBA, FAPA: 

 "This is the first Black History Month that I am moved to tears thinking of the legends who led blazing paths, overcoming infinite obstacles designed to hinder reaching the ideal of unity and freedom that we as children are taught is for every American. My response seems contrary as the month is one of celebration.  Historian and educator Carter G Woodson’s thirst to fill the vacuum of African Americans in the story of this nation’s past coupled with the launch of a   “Negro History Week” encompassing both Frederick Douglass’ birthday on February 14 and   Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on February 12, would evolve and 50 years later be decreed Black   History Month by President Gerald Ford.  

  I have always taken pride in reading and learning about giants in Black History.  Yet, it was the reading about those like my father, Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, the legendary orator and debate coach who taught Barbara Jordan and Martin Luther King, Jr., that moved me to tears. This year he is now with the ancestors.  He finally has joined his baby brother, musical genius Maestro   Paul Freeman, founder of the Chicago Sinfonietta and conductor of the Sony Black Composer   Series. I believe that everyone can identify some influential individual in one’s personal American success story.  Sometimes they are related to us and sometimes they are African American. 

I am reminded of LACMA’s role in African American history.  It would be 147 years before the Los Angeles County Medical Association elected an African American President, me.  One is not surprised knowing that one of the founders, Dr. Joseph Widney, chancellor and first dean of USC medical school, who received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree for his massive best-selling two volume work Race Life of the Aryan Peoples, detailed the evolution of a “masterful race” thereby structurally integrating into California medicine and medical training the concept of racial difference as science.  As data and history continue to prove this concept of race to be false, shifts will continue in governance, leadership, legislation and policy, education, and practice; albeit what seems a snail’s pace.  However, we must celebrate and embrace those changes that have occurred and the people that worked to make it happen.  Certainly, progress will continue to occur with collaborative, coherent, and coordinated action.  

As I stare at the photo of my father and me taken in front of the Washington, DC, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture display that honors him, I recognize the significant contributions of African Americans, although celebrated in the month of February, are not only intimately woven into the fabric of my life, but also into the fabric of this country.  One day all history books will reflect this fact and every contributor will be named and celebrated every day not just because of, or but for, race.   As for now, my tears are dry, and I smile warmed by the hope that exists for a healthier tomorrow.  Let us all tell the story of the African Americans in American history, which is the story of us all. Let us lift our heads, hearts, and voices celebrating those who continue to inspire and lead us to a better world, that ideal of unity and freedom that we as children are taught is for every American."   

147th President, LACMA 

A word from Valencia P. Walker, MD, MPH:

"Black History Month traditionally affords us an opportunity to highlight the extraordinary accomplishments of great people such as Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks and Dr. Marin Luther King, Jr. As physicians, we often recognize luminary Black figures in medicine like Dr. Charles Drew, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams and Dr. Mae Jemison. The COVID-19 pandemic and racial unrest of 2020, however, also brought to light the systemic health inequities that Black people endure on a daily basis. Understanding why these health inequities persist requires physicians to grapple with how our profession propagates historical and ongoing mistreatment of Black patients and our Black colleagues.

A highly respected physician in his era, Dr. Samuel Cartwright published articles justifying slavery and proposed a new condition known as "drapetomania" to pathologize Black people's desire to escape their inhumane conditions. He also incorrectly theorized that enslaved Black people had decreased skin sensitivity. This myth persists among medical students and trainees with additional research studies providing evidence that doctors undertreat pain in Black people, even children. Another well-regarded physician of his time, Dr. J. Marion Sims performed experimental operations on enslaved Black women without using anesthesia. Considered the father of modern gynecology, Dr. Sims abandoned his experimental subjects once he perfected his groundbreaking surgical techniques. He then began catering his private practice to wealthy women. More than 125 years after Dr. Sims’ death, Black women still suffer and die at higher rates in our current maternal mortality crisis.

Within organized medicine, Black physicians faced blatant discrimination and mistreatment. For example, the American Medical Association (AMA) supported the recommendations of the 1910 Flexner report that led to closing five of the seven medical schools that trained Black physicians. The AMA also remained silent during debates on the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and openly tolerated institutional racism in its affiliated societies well into the late 1960s. Even for LACMA, at least one of our founders, Dr. Joseph Widney, explicitly endorsed racist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

Fortunately, the professional standards and ethical values that compel physicians to beneficence, non-maleficence, autonomy and justice steadfastly prevail. In 2008, the AMA acknowledged and apologized for its racist history. In 2018, LACMA elected its first African-American president, Dr. C. Freeman. In response to the disproportionate COVID-19 morbidity and mortality experienced by Black and Brown people as well as the violent deaths of Mr. George Floyd, Ms. Breonna Taylor, Mr. Ahmaud Arbury and others, the AMA declared racism a public health threat last year. LACMA also recently created a Health Equity Council to bring awareness to bias and discrimination within healthcare as well as advocate for the elimination of health disparities.

Despite this complicated history, I choose to focus on the role our profession can play in ensuring a more just and equitable future for all. When considering the celebration of Black History Month this year, I think it begins by recognizing Los Angeles' own “Hidden Figures” in medicine. Dr. Ruth Temple and Dr. Patricia Bath exemplify just two of the outstanding African-American physicians who paved blazing trails of excellence in medicine. As you reflect on their accomplishments, I hope it inspires you."

A word from Resa R Caivano, MD, MPH:

"During Black History Month and as we enter the 150th anniversary of LACMA, we reflect on the contributions and accomplishments of Black physicians, finding a story of complexity and perseverance. According to the AAMC five percent of physicians in the US are Black. While these numbers are small, the contributions made by these individuals are enormous. 

We see great work performed by giants like Dr. Vivien Thomas in cardiac surgery and Dr. Willam A. Hinton in his work developing the syphilis assay, among countless others. We see Black History in our present day with Dr. Camara Jones and her groundbreaking work in anti-racism and health equity; in Dr. Brian Williams and his work with trauma, violence and race. Within LAMCA, we elected our first African-American president, Dr. C. Freeman in 2018. Dr. Jerry Abraham has been diligently ensuring the equity of COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

Understanding the complicated past that the Black community has had with medicine in this country and in Los Angeles is important as we move forward. Recently, LACMA created the Health Equity Council (HEC) to address the impacts of inequities. The HEC envisions leading the transformation of the local medical community towards anti-racism practice and creating a platform to support organizations and communities working to end to all forms of discrimination and oppression. To realize this vision for the future, we must understand our past and renew our commitments to equity in the present.

As we continue forward, we strive to create an environment that honors our past, building on our successes while acknowledging and redressing past injustice to create a brighter future. In her inaugural poem The Hill We Climb, Amanda Gorman beautifully reminds us that “while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.” The HEC invites all of you to help us bring into creating and maintaining a more equitable environment that future LACMA members will look back on with pride."