Transcripts For CSPAN2 Book Discussion On Breaking Ground 20

[inaudible conversations] hello, everyone, welcome to books at noon. The director of Public Programs and events at the library. I am happy today, thrilled to introduce doctor louis sullivan. I have to read because his long list, policy leader, Minority Health advocate, author, physician and educator, serves as secretary of the department of health and Human Services under george bush and was dean of the Morehouse School of medicine and doctor sullivan will be discussing his recent memoir, breaking ground my life in medicine. We are happy to have you. [applause] this is a bit different because often i do fiction books. Usually memoirs, but your story, there is a lot to talk about here. I wanted to begin, a hard thing to say to somebody, can you send upsize your life in two sentences . I wanted you in some brief way tell the audience what this book covers. I will delve in and we will start going into specifics and build from there. A pleasure to be here at the public library. Thank you very much. What i would say, my autobiography tells, the strands of my life story. I was born in the depression. My father was a Life Insurance salesman, the second of two boys. Nobody was buying Life Insurance. My father left atlanta, went to southwest georgia, established the first black funeral home in blakely, georgia. Beyond that my father was a social activist because this was during the period of legally enforced segregation. In southwest georgia in those years for blacks was not a very happy place but my father was an activist. He founded the first chapter of the naacp in blakely, filed suit against the county and state to overturn the white primary because blacks could not participate in voting at that time. He also sought the annual emancipation Day Celebration january 1st in blakely for blacks to celebrate their emancipation by president lincoln. My father was a lifelong republican and he identified himself with abraham lincoln. He was quite a social activist. My mother was a schoolteacher. Because of my fathers activism to try getting the vote for blacks, improving the economy, retaliation, my mother lived without a job teaching school. So in that environment, fortunately for my brother who is a year and a half older, we were sent back first to savannah to live with relatives to attend school in savannah because schools in rural georgia for blacks were not very good. We got the handmedowns, we got there books. They had a band, the black schools did not have a ban on instruments so my father was really someone who worked to address that and because he was serving the black community, during 20 years from 1937 to 1957, taught in schools in other counties around there. Interestingly, as i was mentioning earlier, talked in some by julius rosenwald. Those who have seen the movie rosenwald, some of those rules my mother taught in. I was stimulated by one black physician in southwest host you met him when you were 5. You made a decision, was so miraculous. My first question was about three men in your life, is everyone as cold as i am . If i am shaking, please realize i dont want you to jump in. It was most influential. This doctor who you met at 5. And told him with interest in medicine and the third was Benjamin Hayes who was the dean for the presidency who also influential in your life. The three pillars, and these are the three men that helped guide you, to decide to be a doctor, to decide to move as you did. And in the south too. The example was your father in many ways because regardless of what the environment was he moved forward. The statement that my father and mother gave to me at that time was this is not the right system. We are going to do everything we can to change it. We expect you to do the same. There were no excuses. We were expected to excel in school. We were taught to treat our elders with respect so that many things we learn from our parents and doctor griffin, because he had magical powers other people didnt have, i wanted to be like him. I was interested in science, loved birds and trees and nature but he was the personification of someone who really was an expression of learning and service to the community. That is what my father and mother were all about. That was the influence. And then when i went to Morehouse College, personified all of those things, i and all the students at the college wanted to be like doctor mays. He was elegant, in speech, in dress and in manners, a sought after speaker, he was always traveling, but would speak to students every Tuesday Morning and bring in other speakers to serve as role models so the message he was giving us was also you can beat the system. You must overturn the evil system where we need to do it by a democratic process, protest, bringing our complaints to the public and we were expected to do that. The most famous graduate is Martin Luther king jr. Who finished six years prior to the time i finished. Host did you feel that you needed to make change . That you were working within the system to get what you needed to come out with in order to make the change . Was it that you were working towards becoming a doctor in order that you could implement change . Or did you feel along the way you were fighting every step of the way to make change and get what you wanted, to be a physician . Guest it was really both. When his weekly addresses to the students would say things like this, whatever you choose to do in life, you should do it so well that no man living, no man dead, no man yet to be could do it better. If you commit yourself to that, when they are looking for someone in your field, engineering or physics or medicine or business or literature, you are so well accomplished in your field, they have to consider you. You may not get the job but not because you are not prepared. He was telling us be prepared for the opportunity so that you can make the change. He was saying the way you fight the system is excel. You went to medical school and you were one of 76, the only black man on 76, you also, the first time you were in a nonsegregated environment. You had grown up in the south. How was that q you became class president and excelled. I am wondering how it was . How were you treated . How did you feel . Did it get in the way because you graduated top 3 in your class. Am i right . Did it get in the way . How was it . This was a great period of suspense and trepidation. I had done well at morehouse. Living now for the first time in a nonsegregated society, being the only black in my class, i had these questions. Am i going to do well . Will i meet my Parents Expectations . Will i meet my own expectations . Will i meet morehouses expectations . Because i was the only black i felt i was representing the black community. If i dont do well that was that kind of experience and topping that most of my classmates had never heard of morehouse. They were from middlebury, harvard, princeton, amherst, and they all finished at the top of their classes. To make a long story short, the examination three weeks later, did well and react is relaxed. In terms of academic challenges i did well. Secondly my classmates were very welcoming. I didnt get the hostility i feared i might get for being ignored or marginalized. It was a positive experience for me and also with the faculty. My experience in medical school compared with what i wondered would happen was a positive experience. Host what about boston . Guest boston was next. I read about paul revere and his ride, lexington and concord battles and the boston tea party. I had read about the first black to die in the revolutionary war. Went to see the memorial in the boston commons. I soaked up the history of boston. This was quite interesting, very positive. My experience in boston was very positive but in the late 50s, the year i ended medical school was the year of brown versus board of education, Supreme Court decision. This was implemented around the country, problems not only in the south but the north and boston was one of those areas. My experience in boston was different from blacks who went to boston in the late 50s. They found with the political shenanigans of lewis hicks, became a very hostile community. But by that time i had formed friendships and relationships in boston with my classmates and faculty and others, i found myself explaining to black youngsters who were coming to boston in the late 50s that this may schism. The representation you get from the busing controversy boston did undergo a change in this environment between the mid50s when i entered in the late 50s when the controversy started. Host did your relationship with andrew young beginning georgia . When did you meet . You have a similar history, you are four years apart. I am wondering. That did not begin until i went back in 1975 when he was a congressman from georgia and he was a congressman at Morehouse College and medical school so he took me to washington to introduce me to members of congress to work to get federal funding for the medical school. Host that was the first one, interesting. You were the founding dean of the morehouse medical school. I was asking you back stage, down the hall, i was asking about when you created medical school, what was the philosophy behind this and how you raised funds with that philosophy and how you got a lot of people, during the time it came to pass is an interesting story. Guest when Morehouse School of medicine was founded there were 80 medical schools in the country, two that were africanamerican. In nashville to open in 1881. And other minority positions in the country and still is today so the rationale for the developed of Morehouse School of medicine was as follows. Congress passed legislation in the 50s and 60s to stimulate the development of more medical schools. We added 47 medical schools to those 80 x 1981. There was a massive period of expansion in medical education from 1956 to 1981. Morehouse school of medicine came along during that time but there was also the Civil Rights Movement that started in the mid50s so the rationale for developing the Morehouse School of medicine was to work to train more black and other minority physicians. The development of Morehouse School of medicine was influenced by those major events, expansion of medical education in general and the Civil Rights Movement showing in stark detail the many deficiencies in terms of the lives of blacks including having enough doctors, including having minority doctors as well so that is how that came about. By the early 1970s i was professor of medicine at Boston University, a research hematologist. And thought i had found my niche in medicine because i loved hematology, loved the research, loved taking care of patients with the blood diseases but Morehouse College, my alma mater decided they wanted to start a medical school to address the shortage of black physicians so i served on an Advisory Committee at the college and ended up being recruited to head that every. I met andy young. This effort was supported by the black physicians in georgia and the white physicians as well and that was because again the civil rights activities of the 50s, 60s and 70s have shown in stark detail the situation that faced so many black and other minorities so we have 2 support the state chapter of American Medical Association in georgia as well as state chapter of the National Medical association in georgia so a lot of support from the Business Community and the Philanthropic Community as well. That enabled us, the third black medical school in the country. Host this began your introduction to politics. Didnt you ask, didnt you ask Ronald Reagan to i guess cut the ribbon or whatever it is, open the doors, to be at the ceremony . It was the Vice President , george bush at the time who came, he asked you to go on a delegation to africa. Am i right . And you became friendly with the bushes at that point. Barbara is interested in education and reading and all that and when he became president , trying to move on to this you became involved on the political side and you talked you were really instrumental in making sure, the first woman president or head of nih was under your command and also the Surgeon General was the first latino woman. You were instrumental in making sure there was diversity. This is always your mission but when you took over, talk about meeting the bushes and the next stage of your life. We started with our first class at Morehouse School of medicine 1978 in facilities on the campus of Morehouse College. The first building we constructed for the medical school was dedicated to july 1982 when Vice President George Hw Bush was speaker. He came, he was scheduled to stay only a few minutes for reception afterwards but stayed more than an hour. He was enjoying himself. Andy young, john lewis, ed mcintyre, many other blacks were there getting their pictures taken with republican Vice President so that was a great event. He left and two week later called and asked if i would go with him on a trip he was planning to Subsaharan Africa in november 1982 so i said this is great but since i am not in government why what would my role be . To be honest with you, we dont have andy young in our administration and i dont feel i can go to Subsaharan Africa without a prominent africanamerican in my delegation so you would do me a favor but more importantly he would do the country a service if you would be willing to do it. I appreciate his honesty and i went. On that trip was barbara bush who was speaking to groups in zaire, zimbabwe, literacy groups so on the way back after two weeks i spoke to barbara on the plane and that you and i are in the same business, different branches, i have medical education, we are a new school, we need to have someone like you on our board. Would you be willing to consider it. She accepted. In january 1983, my wife and i were constantly invited to things got to know them very well. One of my trustees wanted to be secretary and i was pushing him. When bush was elected rather than him taking my trustee he asked me to serve so that is how that happened. When he asked me to serve, i said there are things i would want to have happen and i would like to know how you feel about this. We need more minorities in positions of authority, we need to have more women, that is great, i support you. When i became secretary i pushed very hard and as you mentioned, the first woman at nih i appointed, the first woman Surgeon General who was also latino, the first black to head social security, glenn king, other programs, to increase diversity. As well as programs to benefit the black community. He was supportive of that. One other thing most people dont know. The bush family has been involved with the United Negro College fund since its beginning in 1946. George hw bushs mother was one of the first directors, a member of the bush family on the board continuously since that time. He convinced he is supportive of education and diversity so it is a pleasure and honor to serve with him. Host i want to talk about the current state of things. Since you have lived in a segregated society, you were in boston in the late 50s when things were not so easy, they were easier. There seems to me to be a wave with gender issues, feminism and race issues that reminds me of 1968. There is an interest with black lives matter, what is really happening. There seems to be a swelling of political activity. People are protesting, people are angry, people want to talk about it and i am wondering how you see this. You have seen for years, you have seen this go up and down, expansion of various things. Will you speak to what you think is really happening . And why now . Good question. Let me say one thing as part of a framework. When i finish Boston University school of medicine i was the first black intern in new york at New York Hospital at Cornell Medical Center in 1958, not so many years ago but the changes that occurred in the 50s and 60s and 70s were very encouraging, with the leadership of Martin Luther king and other civil rights leaders, i attended the march on washington, etc. Like so many other africanamericans, very encouraged by all the progress that has been made, it is surprising, and discouraging because it shows that progress is so fragile, it is like thin ice. What happened now, not only surprising but disappointing when we have people being questioned that if you are muslim you are not eligible to be president. All you have to do as far as i am concerned is substitute the word black for muslim. 20 or 30 years ago that would have been on the scene. We should be better than that as a country. All of us are immigrants. The only true native americans are the american indians. People whose forebears one or two generations ago were immigrants now see peeking antiimmigrant things and the racial tomes here, very discouraging, very disappointing. I think most minorities not only africanamericans but latinos are not going to accept that. We have a country built on the premise that all men are created equal, there is strength in our diversely, everyone has something to contribute. The culture of this country has been enriched by the minority population. This is we havent made of much progress as we thought, that progress is just a quarter of an inch deep, maybe a mile wide. We need to wo