Editor’s Note: Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former U.S. Surgeon General, spoke at First United Methodist Church in Rogers on Tuesday. I wasn’t able to cover the event, but met with Dr.
Elders earlier in the day.
We covered much of the same material she included in her talk.
Additional information was taken from “The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture” and Elders’ 1996 memoir, “Joycelyn Elders, M.D.,” co-authored by David Chanoff.
Elders spoke as part of the Lewis Lectureship Series at the church. She traced her rise from sharecropper’s daughter to the top medical position in the U.S., sharing wisdom gleaned through 79 years of life.
ROGERSDr. Joycelyn Elders started life as a sharecropper’s daughter, growing up in a three-room shack in the tiny rural town of Schaal.
The eldest of eight children, she toiled in the cotton fields with her parents and siblings, as well as doing pre-dawn chores, caring for the younger children and studying for school.
Her hard-working mother instilled in her children the importance of an education, although she barely grasped what that could mean. This was in the 1930s and 40s, when job prospects for black Americans didn’t extend beyond agricultural work or domestic service.
“Education, education, education,” Elders said. “That’s what we heard.”
The message was reinforced by her community and her church.
When she was 12, a white woman came to speak at her Methodistchurch, encouraging the young people to go to college.
“We didn’t even know what college was,” Elders said. Yet the seed planted by that woman took root. As valedictorian of her high school class, Elders earned a scholarship to Philander Smith College in Little Rock. Her familyscoured the fields for early cotton to raise the $3.83 needed for bus fare.
At Philander Smith, Elders encountered another speaker who made an even greater impact on her life. Edith Irby was the fi rst black medical student at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and one of the fi rst women.
She spoke about the high road and the low and the importance of striving for the heights, Elders recalled.
“I was mesmerized. The only thing I could think about was that I wanted to be just like her.
“One person can really infl uence who you are - make a diff erence.
We should make sure that we do that (for others).”
Elders, who already had an interest in the sciences, set her sights on medical school. She got there with the help of the G.I. Bill.
After graduating from PhilanderSmith and working a short time as a nurse’s aide, Elders joined the U.S. Army. She served three years as a physical therapist.
She became an M.D. in 1960. After finishing her residency in pediatrics - Elders was named chief resident, the fi rst black to earn the honor - she went into research as a pediatric endocrinologist. She was a professor at UAMS for 20 years before her more visible public service and for several years afterward.
A CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE
In 1987, then-Gov. Bill Clinton appointed Elders director of the Arkansas Department of Health. She accomplished much she is proud of during her six years of service, she said.
Highlights included a 12-fold increase in early childhood health screening and a near doubling of the childhood immunization rate. Elders also implemented a controversial program to dispense contraceptives in public schools. She pushed the state legislature to mandate sex education for children in kindergarten through 12th grade.
“I wanted absolutely to make a difference,” she said. “I felt that God had called me as one of his messengers. I had to get out there and get busy.”
At the heart of her efforts was a desire to break the cycle of “poverty, ignorance, enslavement” that affected so many young women in the state, she said.
“They can’t get out of that kind of life. What enslaved them is that they had no control over their reproduction. They became parents before they became adults.”
Her outspoken advocacy antagonized those with diff erent points of view. Elders recalled trying to form a coalition of clergy members to address the issue of teen pregnancy. Some of the recruits wouldn’t shake her hand, she said.
She responded to the criticism with characteristic bluntness. “It’s a sin for children to be hungry. It’s a sin for children to be cold. If you’re causing more children to be poor, hungry and enslaved, you can’t say you’re a Christian.”
Elders went to Washington, D.C., as surgeon general in 1993. Her tenure lasted just 16 months. She continued to be a controversial fi gure, garnering both admiration and ire for her frank comments on sexuality, birth control and the legalization of drugs. President Clinton asked her to resign in December 1994.
Elders doesn’t harbor resentment or regret her outspoken stance, she said. “I know what my goal was. I went to Washington to help poor young women who became parents before they were adults. If I couldn’t do anything about that, I didn’t want to be there.”
She’s most proud of the increased awareness she brought to that and other issues during those stormy years, she said. The teen pregnancy rate in the U.S. dropped 36 percent - 40 percent for black teens - since 1990, although it’s started to rise again, she said.
“We’re not where we want to be, but we’re a very long way from where we were.” EDUCATION AS KEY
Elders continues to speak out about the need for public health education and related issues such as AIDS, adolescent sexuality and national health care.
“We, as a nation founded on moral values, should really feel badly about not off ering health care for all of our people. I think it’s amoral,” she said. “Ifwe don’t like everything about (the congressional health care bill), let’s fix it. Don’t get rid of it.”
She decried the disparities she sees in public policy and in health insurance. Last year, lawmakers passed 81 bills addressing abortion, yet cut funding for family planning, she said. “Which makes zero sense.” Likewise, many health insurance policies cover Viagra but not birth control pills, she said.
She attributes those juxtapositions to issues of power and control that still plague the topic of reproduction, she said.
“We have a dysfunctional society in sexual health.”
The solution, in Elders’ view, is the same solution offered by her mother those long years ago. Education - and a continuing nationwide conversation - are the keys, she said.
“We need to start early in regards to educating our young people about sex. If we do that, we’re not going to have to worry about STDs, HIV and AIDS, unplanned pregnancies. We’ve devoted all of our time trying to prevent sex when we need to prevent the unhealthy consequences.”
In her Tuesday night talk, Elders stressed the importance of education in all realms of life, not just the sexual, said the Rev. Sandi Wanasek, a pastor at the church. “‘Education is the way up.’”
The doctor credited those who helped her in her own journey toward education, Wanasek said.
“I found it particularly touching to hear about the white woman who went to talk to the kids at the black church about college. That’s how we’re all supposed to be living - regardless of color, giving each other a hand up.
“It was just so encouraging. It gives me hope for the world.”
Church member Mary Lynn Reese was struck by the same story, and another one about a white woman who offered support during Elders’ college years. “She credited people all along the way.”
Reese said she knew the basic facts about Elders’ public service, but had never heard the full story of her life.
“It was so impressive. What she came from - and what she had to overcome to get where she is. It was an inspiring talk.”
Religion, Pages 6 on 09/22/2012