[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 15 (Wednesday, February 16, 2000)]
[House]
[Pages H501-H505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr.
Davis) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority
leader.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to compliment my
colleagues on a very interesting discussion that just took place,
especially as it relates to health care and the role of community
health centers and rural health centers in providing for the health of
this Nation.
As we continue to celebrate African American History Month, a time
that is set aside largely due to the efforts of Dr. Carter G. Woodson,
where we pause, take a look at the contributions as well as the needs,
hopes and aspirations of African Americans in this country, I am
pleased to be joined by my colleague, the gentlewoman from the Virgin
Islands (Mrs. Christensen), who is a physician, has been a practicing
physician, and who has been a director of clinics and community health
centers, who currently serves as chair of the Congressional Black
Caucus' Health Brain Trust, but is indeed a dynamic Member of this
body.
Mr. Speaker, we come to talk a bit about not only the contributions
of pioneer African Americans in the area of health, but also as we look
at continually the health problems and disparities that exist in our
Nation, especially as they relate to the needs of African Americans. So
I say to my colleague, it is a pleasure to be here with her this
afternoon.
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{time} 1415
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my colleague, and
I thank him for yielding to me.
I wanted to just talk a bit first about some of the women in
medicine. As my colleague knows, I have the privilege of being the
first woman physician in the U.S. Congress. And I am very grateful to
my constituents of the U.S. Virgin Islands for voting me into this
position and allowing me to have that honor.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, they sound like they were some
very wise people.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. But before I even begin to talk about the women, I
want to spend the first few moments to brag a little bit on behalf of
my constituents that, indeed, the first African American physician to
serve in the U.S. Congress was also from the Virgin Islands, and that
was Doctor, Governor, and Congressman Melvin H. Evans, who served from
1978 to 1980 before becoming ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.
Although women of African descent have been providing health care in
our communities in this country from times of slavery, it was not until
1864 that Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first woman to be awarded a
doctorate of medicine in the United States. She was a graduate of
Female Medical College.
Dr. Rebecca Cole was the first black woman to graduate from Women's
Medical College and, by most accounts, the second black woman physician
in the United States. She worked for a time with Elizabeth Blackwell,
who was the first white female physician in this country.
Dr. Cole was soon followed by Susan Smith McKinney Steward and Sarah
Loguen Fraser. Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward graduated from New York
Medical College in 1870 and was the first woman doctor of African
descent in New York State and went on to be co-founder of the Women's
Hospital and Infirmary in Brooklyn.
Sarah Loguen Fraser, who in 1876 received her MD from Syracuse
University College of Medicine, was also one of the early African
American women in medicine in this country.
There are so many outstanding women in medicine, not all of whom are
doctors, and let me just tell you of a few more of them from the 19th
century before talking about some of the outstanding women of this
century.
The first African American woman to earn a doctor of dental surgery
degree in 1890 was Dr. Ida Gray Nelson Rollins, who was a graduate of
the University of Michigan Dental School; and she practiced in
Cincinnati and in the hometown of my colleague in Chicago.
Mary Eliza Mahoney is reported to have been the first black
professionally trained nurse in the United States. Born in Roxbury,
Massachusetts, she was employed as a maid at the local hospital before
entering her training.
In addition to Ms. Mahoney's notable activism within the field of
nursing, she was also a fervent supporter of women's suffrage and is
said to have been one of the first black women in Boston to have
registered to vote.
I am a member, too, of the National Medical Association, as my
colleagues know, and it has had several outstanding female presidents.
The first was Dr. Edith Irby Jones, who was the first African American
to enter the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. She graduated
from that institution with an M.D. in 1952 and served as the National
Medical Association president in 1985.
Dr. Irby Jones was later followed by Dr. Vivian Pinn in 1989. In that
year, the board was also chaired by a woman, Dr. Yvonne Chris Veal of
New York, who later went on to be the first woman to serve in both
capacities when she became president of the NMA in 1995.
Dr. Vivian Pinn was also the first permanent director of the Office
of Research on Women's Health at the National Institutes of Health,
where she still serves in that capacity.
In 1991, Dr. Alma Rose George of Michigan became the third woman to
head this prestigious organization, which represents the African
American medical community.
Two other of the many notable black women physicians are Dr.
Joycelynn Elders, who served as U.S. Surgeon General from September
1993 to December 1994. Her mission was and still is to change America's
thinking about health by emphasizing prevention. She initiated programs
to combat youth smoking and teen pregnancy, as well as to increase
childhood immunizations. She advocates public health over private
profits and health care reform, openness over censorship and sex
education, and rehabilitation over incarceration in the war against
drugs.
Another outstanding woman physician is Dr. Mae Jamison, who was the
first African American woman to participate in the space mission aboard
the 50th space shuttle flight in 1992. She continues to share her
knowledge through speaking engagements and teaching at the university
level.
These individuals are representative of the many women and men as
well who have served our communities in the 50 States and the
Territories and contributed to the improved health of African Americans
and all people of color, indeed of all Americans. They are the reason
that I and many of my colleagues have been able to practice medicine
today.
As we proceed into the 21st century, we should no longer have the
first African American or the first female for any position. Despite
the strides that these women and others have made, unfortunately,
though, there is still much work to be done.
I salute all of those who have paved the way for today's and
tomorrow's practitioners of medicine and thank them for opening the
doors of opportunity for all of us.
This year's theme is Heritage and Horizons: The African American
Legacy and the Challenges for the 21st Century. As we face this new
century, there are many challenges for us in health and science. We in
the Congressional Black Caucus, together with community and faith-based
organizations and leaders around this country, are poised to meet those
challenges, drawing on the rich legacy that inspires us and compelled
by the disparities in health that still confront us and call us to
action.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her
comments.
She mentioned two ladies, Dr. Irby and Dr. Elders, both of whom had
some connection with the State of Arkansas, a State that I know a
little bit about in terms of having grown up there. As a matter of
fact, I know many members of Dr. Elders' family.
It occurred to me as my colleague was talking about the things that
people had accomplished who, in spite of coming from situations that,
at the very least, would have seemed to have been difficult, and I
really think of even the African Americans along with others who opened
black medical schools during the 1800s, shortly after slavery, I mean
individuals whose parents had been slaves and whose grandparents had
been slaves.
Now we find these individuals actually opening medical schools and
teaching others to become physicians and medical professionals.
And then I look and even today I am somewhat alarmed, because as I
look at minority employment in health professions, that only 1.9
percent of the speech therapists are African American, 2.8 percent of
the dentists are African American, 3.9 percent of the dental
hygienists, 4.1 percent of the pharmacists, 4.2 percent of the physical
therapists, 4.9 percent of the physicians, 6.1 percent of the dental
assistants, 6.5 percent of the occupational therapists.
I guess my question becomes, why does it still seem to be so
difficult for African Americans to become health professionals at a
greater number than what we are currently experiencing? I mean, why
only a small percentage of the dentists, 2.8 percent, or such a small
percentage of the physicians in this country, 4.9 percent? Why do you
think we are still facing that phenomena in this country?
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, my colleague just pointed out one of
the great challenges that face us for this century, educating more of
our daughters and sons and bringing them into the health professions.
I guess I would have to start back in the schools that they attend.
As my colleague knows, in many of the inner cities and in many of our
rural areas schools are in disrepair, they are unsafe, they are ill-
equipped, and they are short on staff, as well. So the preparation that
our children receive as they
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go through elementary and secondary school leaves a lot to be desired,
and it starts at that level.
Of course, we are now faced with propositions that have closed the
door of medical schools to many African Americans and other students of
color who desire to enter the medical profession, and that is taking a
serious total on the numbers as we were beginning to strive to make
some headway there. And really it is more even than just the educating
of our young people into the field of medicine. Because there is an
increasing body of knowledge now that demonstrates that when patients
are under the care of a physician or a health provider of the same or
similar racial, ethnic, or cultural background that a better doctor-
patient relationship is established and out of that better relationship
come better patient outcomes and, therefore, better health.
We have as a major challenge of this century to eliminate the
disparities in health care and heart disease and diabetes and cancer
and the diseases that kill African Americans and other people of color
in excess numbers. That relationship is critical to that.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, what is really alarming to me is
when I look at the tremendous shortage of nurses. I mean, we can go to
almost any hospital and there is a need for nurses, yet there appear to
be not the numbers of individuals especially coming from the African
American community and especially that part of the African American
community that I am very much familiar with.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, if I might say, I want to just applaud
both the National Black Nurses Association as well as the National
Medical Association that has been fighting this battle for many, many
years and continues to.
The National Black Nurses were on the Hill just a few weeks ago, and
one of their major focuses is on bringing more of our young men and
women into the nursing profession.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it would just seem to me that,
especially as we talk about unemployment and as we go into certain
areas and as there is uncertainty about what fields individuals should
pursue and go into even those individuals who are available to attend
colleges and universities sometimes seemingly come out and might have
majored in areas where there did not seem to be many job opportunities,
and yet if you go down to the community hospital and there is a sign
saying ``nurses wanted,'' or you go to the medical center and there is
a sign saying ``nurses wanted.''
So I guess I would also, then, want to take this opportunity to
suggest, especially to African American youngsters, that if they are
looking for a career, but to anybody, if they are looking for a career
and they want to make sure that there are opportunities in that field
or in that career, then perhaps they ought to be looking at the health
professions and especially perhaps they ought to be looking in the
nursing arena. Not that they necessarily have to stop there, but
certainly that is an area where job opportunities do in fact exist.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I am glad that my colleague talked
about this as it pertains to allied health professionals. It is an area
that is often overlooked. But the physicians and the nurses need the
full team in the health care field to bring our patients, who, as I
said, are suffering in larger numbers than any other population from
diseases like stroke, where speech therapy and occupational therapy,
physical therapy is critical to their recovery.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I guess what we are going to have
to do in some of these areas, my colleague mentioned education and the
difficulties where some of the schools are not up to standard and where
individuals do not get the early training, the early education that
they really need.
{time} 1630
I guess we are going to have to even go beyond that. I was just
looking and reading how a report, the Flexner Report, which was done as
a result of some resources made available by the Carnegie Foundation in
1910, that after the report there were six black medical schools
existing at that time, but after the report, four of those six ended up
being closed; and the only two left were Meharry and Howard. And so
standards in terms of the definition of standards and who set the
standards and how the standards are set oftentimes determine the extent
to which not only do individuals get in but also the extent to which
institutions may continue to thrive, to survive and to function.
I cannot help but recall Dr. Charles Drew, the pioneer in blood
plasma, who after all the work that he had done and all of the advances
that he had made had an accident and supposedly died because he really
could not get service at the hospitals that were nearest to him because
he was African American, he was black; and that time those hospitals
denied him the opportunity to be served, which means that in addition
to the technical things that we have to do, the political things that
we have to do relative to creating the resources, providing the money,
that there are still some attitudinal changes that must occur in our
society if there is to be the kind of equity that we desire, the kind
of equity that we are talking about.
I mean, it pains me to know, for example, that the Daniel Hale
Williams hospital, the Provident Hospital that was founded by Dr.
Daniel Hale Williams, an African American physician who performed the
first open heart surgery and who established because he had met a nurse
who had had difficulty being trained and he set up this training
school, eventually it became a hospital. Yet it had ultimately some
difficulty. It has reopened now as a part of the Cook County health
care system but not as a private African American-owned, community-
owned hospital.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think that is a challenge that is being faced
across the country for our African American hospitals and hospitals
that serve African American communities and the poorer communities
across the country. In many of our districts that are represented by
the Congressional Black Caucus, hospitals are closing every year.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. I think the only answer that we are going to
ultimately have is universal health care as far as I am concerned and a
national health plan that is going to provide each and every citizen no
matter who he or she is, no matter where they might live, no matter
where they might be, so that they have got access to quality health
care and they are not going to be shut out because they just did not
have the resources or they are not going to be put in a category of the
non-poor, a category of being too wealthy to qualify for some of the
entitlement activity but really too poor to pay for health insurance,
too poor to really have a regular physician, to go to a doctor. We have
got to change that.
Hopefully, the initiatives this year that are designed to reduce the
disparities, to close the gap, hopefully those initiatives will build
upon the strengths that we have seen and come the next year and the
next year, we will be much closer to equity than where we currently
are.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman. We have
made some strides. We have increased portability; we have extended
health insurance to children who were previously uninsured. We are
continuing to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program and
Medicaid. But those are just steps on the way to the ultimate goal,
which must be universal health insurance.
The gentleman talks about the historically black colleges and
universities that have medical schools. They need resources. When he
talks about some of the political activity that has to take place, we
need to work very diligently to make sure that our medical schools that
primarily are African American-serving as well as the Hispanic-serving
institutions and the Native American-serving institutions have the
resources they need because the education of people of color to serve
communities of color because we know of the effectiveness of the
relationships that are formed there are critical to eliminating the
disparities in health and elevating the health status for the entire
country.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. I certainly agree that we must have the
resources. There is simply no doubt about it. We have to find new
avenues, new systems, and new approaches. But I am just amazed when I
look back into history
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and see what individuals were able to do. I was looking at African
Americans who had been inventors. Some of this is back during the time
of slavery when slaves, of course, could not have patents; and so
African Americans may have significantly been involved in some
inventions that they never got the credit for.
For example, it is suggested that when Alexander Graham Bell invented
the telephone, he had Lewis Latimer, a black man, to draft the plans,
and that Mr. Latimer had been a member of the Edison Pioneers; and this
was a group of individuals who had actually worked for Edison. Then we
go back to even people who lived in the 1700s, Benjamin Banneker, who
is sometimes called the first black scientist in this country of any
real note.
And of course, Banneker helped to lay out the plans for the city of
Washington, D.C. He was an engineer. He received a presidential
appointment. It is just amazing that he could have done that. Then
there was Joe Anderson, a slave who was believed to have played a major
role in the creation of the grain harvester that Cyrus McCormick got
all of the credit for, the McCormick reaper. But Joe Anderson helped
him do it.
Ben Montgomery, another slave, who actually belonged to Jefferson
Davis, and he was supposed to have improved a boat propeller. Then
there were other people like Henry Blair who invented a seed planter,
Norbert Rillieux who patented a sugar refining evaporator, Louis Temple
invented a harpoon for killing whales. This is back in 1848. Henry
Board created an improved bed frame.
James Forten was actually one of the few blacks that became wealthy
from an invention. He came up with an invention that helped to guide
ships. Yet these individuals could not have had a great deal of formal
education, or they could not have had a lot of opportunity to have
developed themselves. Take Granville Woods who invented a steam boiler
furnace. I guess my point is that if these individuals were able to
come up with the inventions with the creativity, had all of this
potential, then certainly young African Americans today, who do not
necessarily have equity in each and every instance but certainly have
much more to work with than these inventors, like Madam C.J. Walker who
came up with hair products that women could use in the cosmetic line,
and of course, became the first African American female to become a
millionaire. We have had the first doctors, but she also became the
first millionaire in terms of being a businessperson.
And so I make a plea for young African Americans to not only look at
the history, that is, to go back and see what other individuals have
done, not to just be aware of it, not to just bask in it but to also
understand what they themselves can in fact do. That, I think, really
becomes a real part of the value of African American History Month, not
just to have pageants, not just to have plays, not just to sing songs,
not just to glory in the athletes and entertainers but to really look
at the history of a people who have had to make creative use of the art
of struggle, who have had to make the best use of themselves to come
from a position of where they were, always moving in the direction of
where they ought to be, and realizing that when you get to the
basement, that you are not in the penthouse, and that you have got to
keep coming.
But also understanding what Carter G. Woodson attempted to teach us
about the whole notion of mind control. Carter Woodson wrote this
tremendous book, The Miseducation of the Negro, and he suggested that
if you control a man's mind, you do not have to worry about how he will
act. That is, if you control a man's mind, you do not have to tell him
to go hither or yon, you do not have to tell him to go to the back of
the bus, you do not have to tell him to go to the back door. Woodson
said that he will find his place and stay in it. And that if he goes to
the back door and there is no door, he will cut one out.
But the point that he also made is that once individuals get through
the door, then they need to reach back and help bring somebody else
along; that it makes no sense to go through the door alone; and that
you really move as an individual as you help to create opportunities
for others and as you help to move the group. And so we do not
necessarily just revere these individuals in terms of saying Dr. Daniel
Hale Williams was a great doctor or Dr. Percy Julian was a great
scientist. We say that Dr. Daniel Hale Williams was a great doctor
because he saved people's lives, because he created an institution, he
helped people to become well, he provided opportunities for others to
grow and develop and to become and to be. That really becomes the
greatness of the people as opposed to the individual just simply being
a great person. That is not the point at all.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I agree that we have many budding and potential
scientists, inventors, great doctors and health professionals in our
community that just need the opportunity. I am also thinking that
through some of our education initiatives this year that will help to
open the doors for them to become those inventors, those physicians,
those scientists.
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. I think of my mother, who was probably in many
ways when I was a kid my greatest doctor. I do not know how she could
do it, but if I had a fever or was catching a cold, somehow or another
it seemed as though she could come into the room, put her hand on my
head and the fever would be reduced, and, if it did not get reduced, I
certainly felt like it did.
The legacy of what it is that we have had the opportunity to
experience, the roles that our parents and grandparents and others have
played in terms of being the bridges and being the shoulders, I could
never do anything in relationship to the celebration of African
American History Month without celebrating my parents, my mother and my
father.
My father is 87 years old; and, fortunately, he is still around. We
say that he was a doctor of sorts, but he really was not. He was a
doctor because he believed so much in himself.
I shall never forget, he actually cut a calf's leg off once. I mean,
we were farmers, and the calf's leg got hurt and set up gangrene, and
my father decided that he had to save this calf, that we could not
afford to lose it. So he simply got his ax, sharpened it as sharp as he
could get it, got himself some ashes and soot and coal oil and
chloroform, had my brothers and I to hold this calf, and cut the calf's
leg off. The calf lived, and we had a three-legged cow from then on. We
were the only people, and we actually kept the cow until we finally
took her to the auction in a place called Eudora, Arkansas; and sold
the cow at the auction.
My point is that if people believe in themselves, if they can believe
that they can do things, I had 100 chickens one year in the 4-H Club. I
was a 4-H Clubber, and these chickens would follow me around everywhere
I went because I would feed them.
One day I stepped on one's neck and broke the chicken's neck. Well, I
really felt badly about it, so I thought I would become a physician. I
got myself a piece of wood, a small piece of wood, put it on the
chicken's neck, put some coal oil on there and tied it together, and,
would you believe that the chicken lived? The chicken always walked
like this, but the chicken lived. I ended up that year with my 100
Rhode Island Reds intact for my 4-H Club project.
The other point is when you try something, you do not know if it will
work. If you want to go to medical school, start getting ready to go.
Just because you live in the inner city does not mean you cannot go to
medical school. Just because somebody said your school might not be the
best, if you want to go to medical school, start preparing right now
and decide, I am going to be a doctor, I am going to be a nurse, I am
going to be a scientist, I am going to be an astronaut. I am going to
do whatever it is that I want to do. Then, by golly, prepare yourself,
and God will do it.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I think that is the purpose of Black History Month
and what we are doing tonight, to hold up for our children some of the
people who have excelled in science, many against great odds and
through great obstacles. As you said, it is important to look back and
realize that we are here and have achieved because of our parents, that
we stand on the shoulders of all of those who came before, and that we
must provide the shoulders for those who are coming along behind us. It
is a very important message.
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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Well, I want to thank the gentlewoman for
joining me this afternoon. It has really been a pleasure, and not only
to talk about history, but also to talk a little bit about mystery.
I always believe that if you break ``history'' apart, I was taught to
read phonetically, and if you say ``history,'' that becomes ``his
story.'' But if you say ``mystery,'' then that becomes ``my story.''
Certainly I would hope that every young African American in this
country especially would realize that they are in the process of
creating and writing and making their own story, and that they really
do not have to live through other people's dreams.
Dr. King had a dream, but he did not have a patent on dreaming. He
had a dream, but he did not get a patent, which means that you can live
on 63rd street and have a dream, you can be down in the Mississippi
Delta and have a dream.
Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Or in the Virgin Islands.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Or in the Virgin Islands, and have a dream. So
we will just keep on dreaming, we will keep on working, we will keep on
believing, we will keep on doing politics, and we will keep on
celebrating black history. I want to thank the gentlewoman again so
much.
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