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Black History Month
Ground-breaking
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rowing up in small-town Blakely, GA, Dr. Louis Wade Sullivan had to sit in a separate waiting room when he went to the doctor. The two physicians in his southwestern Georgia town of 1,985 people were white. Black patients had a separate waiting area — away from white patients. That’s the way it was in 1920s Georgia. “You’d have to go around to the back of the building and enter a separate door,” Sullivan said. “Blacks considered that really an insult to antiquity. So many Blacks would head 41 miles south to the one Black doctor in that area in Bainbridge, Georgia. His name was Dr. Griffin.” Sullivan, whose grandson Paul graduated last year, remembers his father’s taking him to Dr. Griffin to help. “In retrospect, it’s clear to me that my father was exposing me to Dr. Griffin,” Sullivan said. “I admired Dr. Griffin because he was able to help people, relieve them of pain, so, when I was age five, my parents were asking me and my brother what we’d like to be when we grew up, and that’s when I said, ‘Well, gee, I want to be a doctor. I want to be like Dr. Griffin!’” True to his childhood words, Sullivan took a career path in medicine — a path that ultimately led him to a seat around the table in President George H.W. Bush’s Cabinet as secretary of Health and Human Services. But, that young Louis Wade Dr. Louis Wade Sullivan Minority health advocate and health policy leader
Sullivan had work to do. He finished second in his class at Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta and went on to attend Morehouse College, where he graduated third in his class.. “I wanted to get away from a segregated environment and compete not only with Black youngsters but also with white youngsters,” Sullivan said. “So I applied to several medical schools — Boston University, University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University and University of Minnesota and was accepted at all four. I went to Boston University.” At first, Sullivan was intimidated by the change in scenery, but not for long.
“I was the one Black student in my medical school class of 76 students,” Sullivan said. “My classmates came from places like Amherst, Middlebury, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia and Brown. I wondered how I would do as my classmates all finished first, second, third in their class. We had our first examination three weeks after class began my freshman year. I scored very well. I then relaxed, because I was sure that my education at Morehouse had been just as strong.” After finishing medical school at Boston University, he stayed on campus to do research work in the field of hematology and was an overtime professor. Soon after, Morehouse College contacted Sullivan for a position in hopes of starting a medical school. He accepted. “At that time, Blacks were about ten percent of the US population and only about two percent of the nation’s doctors,” Sullivan said. “One of the purposes of starting a medical school was to increase the percentage of Black physicians.” In 1982, Sullivan and the Morehouse College Medical School moved into their own facility on campus. ThenVice Bush, who spoke at the dedication, got to know Sullivan and asked him to travel to Africa with him. “When he asked me to go, I was pleased,” Sullivan said. “But I then said, ‘Well, Mr. Vice President, I’m not in the government, so why would you want me to go?’ He said, ‘Well, I have to be honest with you. I’m going to Africa, and ten percent of our citizens trace their ancestry back to Africa. I want to have some African Americans as part of my delegation, and you would be a good representative for the United States.” Six years later in 1988, Bush won the Presidency and asked Sullivan to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sullivan quickly agreed to serve. As a Cabinet member, Sullivan made progress on many medical fronts, managing large federal resources to help young Black men. “The incidence of injury and
illness in young Black males is significance of African-American quite high,” Sullivan said. “I history to him in his childhood. wanted to address that, and I “Black history has always allocated $100 million over a been important to me since period of five years to develop the time I was a student here programs to reduce violence, to at St. Mark’s,” Mack said. “My help young people organize their grandmother and aunt both have lives, to really resolve conflicts decades of experience teaching without necessarily becoming in schools, and they reinforced violent.” why it is important to seek to Additionally, Sullivan helped know about history to inform create a more diverse Cabinet, what we do in the present and one that might more closely in the future. I think all history reflect the makeup of the United is important, frankly, and Black States itself. history is particularly important “I worked to increase to me.” the number of women in the For Mack, recognizing the department,” Sullivan said. role racism has played in history “We appointed the first female director I think all history is important, of the National frankly, and Black history is particularly Institutes of Health, important to me. Dr. Bernadine Healy. We also appointed Korey Mack ‘00, Admission Officer the first female and minority Surgeon General, and plays Dr. Antonia Novello, who is currently in society is significant Hispanic.” in making progress. After concluding his work “In my own experience, my in Bush’s cabinet, Sullivan parents, St. Mark’s and all the continued his work as chairman people in my life acknowledge of a commission intended that there are challenges in to increase racial and ethnic our society and that race plays diversity in health professions, a significant role in a lot of issuing a report called Missing those issues,” Mack said “It is persons: Minorities in the Health important that individually Professions in 2004 at the National and collectively we seek greater Press Club in Washington. understanding and awareness And today, Sullivan still and use that to motivate strives for a more diverse medical us to do something about community. overcoming those challenges as a “When we issued our report community.” in 2004, Kellogg Foundation Lorre Allen, who was recently provided a grant to me to form named as the school’s director the Sullivan Alliance,” Sullivan of Diversity, Inclusion and said. “We formed that in January Human Resources, maintains the 2005, and the commission still month’s importance in spreading operates today with programs recognition of Black history. in states around the country to “It’s bringing awareness increase diversity in the health to the accomplishments of professions.” the African American, Black American communities and the The work of Sullivan and cost and the accomplishments countless other Black innovators that they’ve made to our country is celebrated each February, in the areas of science and math, which is designated as Black engineering, medicine, social History Month. justice, education,” Allen said. Yet rarely discussed is the Broussard suggests Black history of the month itself. When History Month has a major did Black History Month get its impact on youth. start? “It’s an opportunity to not Dr. Albert S. Broussard, only celebrate the achievements Cornerstone Faculty Fellow at of Black people in the long history Texas A&M University, traces its of the United States,” Broussard roots to Black historian Carter G. said. “But also to expose young Woodson. people — white and Black — to “Carter G. Woodson is called introduce people to notable the father of Black history,” African-Americans who they Broussard said. “He started this may not have known anything week of Black history, and in about.” the 1980s, it evolved into one STORY Toby Barrett, Grant full month. That became Black Jackson History Month.” ARTWORK Morgan Chow Admission Officer Korey Mack ‘00 also recalls the
The ReMarker • February 5, 2021
HAND OVER FIST Represented by the colors red, yellow, and green, Black History Month advances the place of Black Americans in history and spreads awareness about important AfricanAmericans.
Issues
Dr. Louis Wade Sullivan’s path from small-town, rural Georgia to a seat on the President’s Cabinet serves as inspiration for all of us as the nation celebrates Black History Month.
Capitol
A student shares his opinion on the Capitol riots. Page 4
Firsthand
Students around campus share their personal experiences with COVID-19. Pages 5-7
Preface
An alumnus on Dallas City Council and Dallas police officers introduce the new chief of police. Page 8
Austin
Recent years have seen mass migration to Texas from California. Why? Page 9
In brief COUNSELING Juniors have begun the year-long College Counseling process and will be meeting for seminars via Blackbauf until March to facilitate their admission work. Pending accessability, after that date, juniors will meet in the Science Lecture Hall for guidance from college counselors Director Veronica Pulido and associate directors Phoebe Kingsak and Josh Shandura. Remote students will connect via Microsoft Teams meetings. Students wishing to meet with any of the college counselors can call and schedule an appointment.” DOING YOUR PART Each student should fill out the SchoolPass Health and Wellness Check before arriving at school each morning. Completion takes seconds to complete the check and can be done on the phone, through the SchoolPass app. This check-in is required of all students, faculty and staff members. SERVICE HOUR LOGGER My Wish is a new service hour tracker founded by sophomores Aadi Khasgiwala, Akash Raghunathan, Aaron Liu and Rishab Siddamshetty. Their goal is to provide a user friendly website that connects charities to donors with an emphasis on customer satisfaction. DROPPING TESTS The SAT will drop the optional essay section and discontinue SAT subject tests, the College Board announced Jan. 19. The changes are effective immediately and come as many colleges evaluate the role of the SAT in the admissions process amid a global pandemic and growing concerns of economic inequity influencing scores. The hour-long SAT subject tests were taken by students to differentiate themselves in a particular subject. Students are now expected to turn to AP exams, also offered by the College Board, to accomplish this.
