In Black America; Dr. Edith Mae Irby Jones

I think that sounds clear. 39 years ago, Dr. Edith Jones became the first black student admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. I'm John Hansen. Join me this week on in Black America. To be able to come up with some program that will significantly aid our poor elderly to get health services that they need. Dr. Edith Jones this week on in Black America. This is in Black America. Reflections of the Black Experience in American Society.

I have just communicated with the members of the black caucus, the Spanish-speaking members of Congress and to other key people that are in the Senate and Congress to be able to come up with some program that will significantly aid our poor elderly to get health services that they need. Dr. Edith Jones immediate past president of the National Medical Association. 39 years ago, Dr. Jones became the first black student admitted to the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. Today, Dr. Jones is one of the most honored women in America. He is the clinical assistant professor of medicine at the University of Texas and at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. She is also on the staff at Riverside General Hospital,

Houston's only black controlled hospital and a member of the board of directors of the standard saving association, the only black owned financial institution in Texas. I'm John Hanson. This week, Dr. Edith May Jones immediate past president of the National Medical Association in Black America. We were able to get to a significant number of late audiences in which we could talk about those things which tend to create better health and we were able to formulate organizations of consumers to get involved with what was happening to them. Just today, one of the major predominantly white organizations is nominating me as the physician, woman physician of the year

for 1987 on the basis of what they feel that I had accomplished during my presidency. I gave it all that I had and I hope that some good results do happen. Dr. Edith May Jones has proven that time and again throughout a medical career that spawned four decades and has been marked by several landmark accomplishments. She was the first black student admitted to and graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. Last year, she was elected president of the National Medical Association, the 91-year-old professional organization to which most black physicians belong. Dr. Jones is the first woman to head the NMA, which has a membership of about 15,000 doctors. Dr. Jones' high profile has been instrumental in high-thinning public awareness of such long-standing NMA concerns as the need for more black physicians and better health care for the poor and elderly. Born and raised in

Hock Springs, Arkansas, she attended the public schools of that city. She started school two years late due to an illness that caused her to be unable to walk. She attended Knoxville College where she graduated with honors. From Knoxville, she attended Northwestern University and in 1948, she entered the University of Arkansas School of Medicine. It was convenient. It was 50 miles from my home. It was less expensive in tuition as a resident of Arkansas than any other place that I could go. And I wanted a medical school education and it was convenient for me to get one from the University of Arkansas. What kind of that interest for medicine? I'm not sure. I think it is accumulation of experiences and the early experiences that I can remember is an older sister who expired. I feel now it's a lack of medical attention. Later, my being reared in Hock Springs and

having been there in the center of a health resort where people came to hope to get rehabilitation from chronic illnesses and to see a positive of physicians, particularly a lack of black physicians in that area. I felt that I could lend my service there and be effective in health care. We now live in an integrated society. Black students are allowed to attend any college university of their choosing. What was it like to pressure the isolation when you attended the University of Arkansas? First, let me correct you to tell you that black students are not allowed to attend any school of their attending, of their desire. I wish it were so. But there are still significant barriers to black students getting into and staying in and getting out of with the

necessary credentials of predominantly white schools. And that problem has become even more acute since the affirmation for minority students has no longer been in place. But there have been very little changes. There have been of course many black students who have come along and have been admitted and have graduated. But the subtle kind of isolation, the certain kind of in difference and sometimes downright hostility still exists in many of the predominantly white schools that tend to cause black students not to be able to get in and once being able to get in,

not being able to tolerate the kind of either imagine a real treatment that they receive. You experience at the University of Arkansas during that time? You know it's amazing that the longer it gets the more pleasant those experiences tend to come to me. I really had no overt hostility shown to me while I was there. It was truly one of where they intended to as a faculty to admit me as another student and for all practical purposes that was observed and no overt any kind of hostility that I was able to detect at that time was shown to me. It may have been some advantage that I was black and that I was female and that I was young and naive and a little bit aggressive also at that time that no one but dare say anything

less I would retaliate in some way that would be unexpected for them. It was a situation which I was so involved in meeting the academic criteria that I had little time to pay attention to the social situations of those of those times and actually things sort of fell into place. At that time as you know that was before Brown versus the Board of Education. Segregation was still on the books. There were still seating on public buses and transportation, particularly on the city buses that were labeled colored from the rear up and white from the front back and we knew under no circumstance unless we wanted to

reap the consequences that those laws would not be violated and so my college my classmates and I who rode the bus together founded expedient not to sit even with many many empty seats. There were no rules and regulations that said that you could not stand and talk together in any part of the bus so we usually took about a midway situation and we stood wherever we wanted to go and we were alive with concern but we made no explanation and we were able to get through it whether or not that had any influence on having the laws change that was not my goal at that time. My goal was to get up every day and do the best I could and whatever task was before me knowing that the next day would be better for it so whereas yes I suppose I did have

an extra burden of knowing that there were eyes on me that I had to succeed for whatever I did would be a judge as a stereotype that we still have not been separated that all blacks do this and all blacks do that and I felt somewhat that I was that all black for that particular time and I acted accordingly of course that was what I had always done I had done that in the black schools I had attempted to excel I had been endowed with the need that if I was to accomplish to help others I was to first get myself in a position that I would be able to help them. Your particularly specialty in medicine and why did you choose that particular specialty?

In town medicine is my specialty now that's my second choice when I first finished medical school I went into pediatrics I enjoyed pediatrics and practice in hot springs Joe medicine after having been in general medicine for six years it allowed me an opportunity to know that I needed for myself to be able to deal with adults to be able to help them to make decisions both individually and in groups and that they primarily were concerned with having situations changed and whatever I could motivate them to do that the pediatric age group would be the recipients of it. You mentioned blacks not really been able to attend colleges of their choice of the lack of black position is it the lack of interest upon our part of becoming physicians or having the lack of resources to actually attend medical school? Oh I think that's a multi-facet situation

we are still many years as an education behind because of the separate but equal and separate now we know it's not equal but we're still having some of the adverse situations in our educational systems that still tends to not motivate our students to become a certain situation. They're early put on tracks tracks of unsuccessful kind of situations when assertive we tend to get labeled as hyperactive and usually end up being sent to physicians to be sedated so that the young teacher would be able to arrest and control the mind that that may be one and then there is a situation of inadequate funds and adequate sources and as medical education particular

becomes more expensive and the resources of federal programs and other help for needed students tend to decrease. Blacks are more significantly affected than the majority race because for the most part being black is almost synonymous with being poor. There are some blacks very few who make above the poverty level but usually it requires everybody in the family work and mother sister brother father and if they're fortunate enough to to find work and especially for the male component and if hired usually hired at underpaid in comparison to what the majority race is making for the same job for the same education same experience and so forth so that is one one facet of it

and then there's a facet of just not not wanting blacks to be involved and it did not stop in 1948 when I entered medical school nor did it stop when I finished medical school in 1952. Yes more blacks have been admitted and more blacks have graduated and there have been many many blacks from predominantly white medical schools who have done very very well in health delivery care research and almost every area in which you can mention but at the same time there have been many many blacks who have knocked only the doors of the predominantly white medical schools and have not been admitted and many of the ones who have been admitted have been recycled and recycled for reasons outside of the fact that they did not meet the academic requirement but because someone adjudged their kind of behavior and orientation to life sometimes on the basis of not being adequate occasionized

to function in a society in which they had envisioned that that person ought to be and sometimes one was graded not so much on the terms of how much academic achievement that could be demonstrated but rather on their opinion and sometimes one was not able to get in one's charts postgraduate training because of recommendations that were sent that were either negative that said nothing and to get around sending negative recommendations we come across frequently in reviewing candidates for specialties and which the heads of the departments who are white was sending such recommendations that were lukewarm or which said nothing such as this candidate dress way of this candidate is clean this candidate is articulate which says absolutely nothing except

something about the one who has given the recommendation but for this reason it's a sort of unspoken language in which it says this is a black candidate don't admit fifth person there are so many so ways and having moved in the societies of underprivileged poor black minority and having peaked in the door of those who have and those who have the power and those who have the influence I cannot help but lend my energy as to have the world open that each person no matter what color that skin sex or what else that acts as a superficial barrier would not be used and eliminating them to be able to obtain their potential in life having spent close to four decades

in medicine your particular concern addressing the quality of health care for Americans in general and particularly to black Americans yes my whole philosophy of life has been to fit into that nuke where I feel the greatest need is yes we have made great strides in the health care of Americans and as you can remember the secretary of health then Margaret Heckler had report made in 1984 and she found that Americans were living longer and tended to have less disorders that tend to incapacinate them for a longer period of time and yet when she looked at what the minority and black health was it was deplorable in comparison we found that blacks were dying much much earlier five to seven years earlier than their white counterpart that they were significantly

affected with disorders many of them that either could be prevented or if early treated could increase their longevity and the period in which they function and I have found in my almost four decades of service that much of this has to do with the access of health care for those who are involved yes there's a significant part which has to do with lifestyles but many of these lifestyles cannot be controlled by the people that are part of them such as poor nutrition poor housing lack of motivation due to the the fence stand kind of situation that many blacks and other minorities find themselves that those of us who know those of us who have those of

us who who who can contribute anything to the health care of the poor much do so less we find that those grounds that we have gained for ourselves are no longer secure for the health of one group significantly affects the health of all and we will find that if we do not get concerned about the health care of the poor and we consider that a drain to our economic progress in our country that it will even be more so far it is certainly more cost effective to treat early and to prevent than it is to allow chronic illnesses and social behavior to develop and then attempt to rehabilitate so for many many reasons I have put a significant amount of my energies to educate some to

sensitize others and to actually get involved with whatever I could give to see that those who are poor disadvantaged have some of the things that they would be able to develop to their potential one is education I've spent a lot of time in trying to be a part of active security of education for those who cannot get it for themselves for being involved in rehabilitation yes but significantly in trying to help provide housing for those who do not have adequate housing to attempt to especially provide health care and health care access and as I say to sensitize those who are in power who have the resources to also devote a significant

amount of their energy and concern for the health care of the poor you are the immediate past president of the National Medical Association what did it mean being selected president of that organization and what were some of the things you accomplished during your tenure well for me it meant that I had an expanded opportunity to serve I had many people who would listen to me and incorporate into their consciousness on the level of bringing about some action as to what I was able to do I'm not so sure that I can tangibly point the well I can say that during my ten years president our membership increased 33% that with that came a significant increase in finances that we were able to do direct communication with governmental

people we were able to get into the White House and into the Senate and to the House of Representative and to make our causes known and to have certain things change that they said they did not even consider because they no one had brought it to their attention we were able to farm lines of communication between other health organizations and which we could speak about the same issues and which we're concerned and to ask them to support the issues of poor minorities which they had shown little concern in which they had not been sensitized to you have to choose Houston to actually settle down and practice and you have an extensive commitment to community service here in Houston I followed my husband here my husband came here in Florida Texas Southern University and it was a place where I could get a residency in my chosen specialty and I followed

him and I sort of did like George Washington Carve said I put my bucket down where I was besides your practice here in Houston you're also involved with the Life Enhancement Center why is that particular project dear to you the Life Enhancement Center is sort of foundation the Jones foundation it's a way of our contribution in terms of finances services to have people who do not understand how to get into the system to help them get for themselves those things that they need for that particular situation to be able to help them to fill out job applications to appear for interviews to suggest what clothes to wear to help in marital counseling and adult development and over adolescent problems and all of the things that tend to feel in need for

people where there has not been a listening ear and there's been as I say no way for them to be able to accept the system and it's it's to enhance them to be to let them know that they're here for a certain purpose and that they are forces that are willing to help them to reach that purpose and that's what I'm about and that's what the enhancement center is about my husband is director of that and we it's to say it's a family commitment service and finances and it's a sort of benevolent foundation for us during my interview with Dr. Jones I made a statement that blacks are now allowed to attend any college or university of their choice I was wrong I questioned Dr. Frederick S. Humphreys president of Florida A&M University about the enrollment of black

students at that university I would say that we are competing effectively for talented black students in Florida we have this year in our freshman class 32 national merit finalist semi-finalist national achievement finalist semi-finals in our freshman class we have the second highest in the system of that all right we we beat most institutions in terms of that particular type of student being in our freshman class you look at nationwide white students score an average of nine twenty five on the scholastic aptitude test and blacks are scoring about seven twenty five so what we need to be working on is how to get that average up get better grade performances from the high schools such that then we'll have a greater pool of students to recruit from because that's that's where the danger is it's it's it's it's not necessarily competing for the ones

who are being successful now you want to get more people being successful so that we can have a greater competition and educate more black students all right the great fear I have is the erosion and you know fam you may recruit all of the good black students but then what will be accomplished and we will be just recruiting a narrower pool right and that's not doing the job we certainly want to be competitive for those students but what we want to do is to to work as Mary was talking about we want to work with the high schools I want to get black professionals in the state to get activated to be concerned to make their input into the community to be worried about what kind of what's happening to to black young men and women from elementary through 12th grade and what is the role that they can play in helping to make sure that the appropriate academic skills of being instilled in those young people what can the church do what can a

a YMCA program do what are all of the ancillary things that impinge on on rearing a kid I mean how effective are they are being instilling their appropriate values and skills and that's in that young person coming up in a community and you know how do we all work together to make that work in a way that we evaporate differences and create a greater pool of people ready and willing and able to participate in their higher educational mainstream and I think that's our greatest challenge right now Dr. Frederick S. Humphreys and Dr. Eath May Jones if you have a comment I would like to purchase a cassette copy of this program write us the address is in black america longhorn radio network UT Austin Austin Texas 787 12 for in black america's technical producer Cliff Hargrove I'm John Hanson join us next week you've been listening to in black america reflections of the black experience in American society in black america is produced and distributed by the

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