- Date:
- 2015-02-11
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Fifty years ago President Lyndon B. Johnson envisioned a Great Society, an America free from poverty and racial injustice and full of equality of opportunity and social mobility for all. Many legislative planks of his Great society platform--civil and voting rights, educational opportunity, fair housing practices, urban planning, mass transit, and health care --represent what we today consider "social determinants of health." This Medical center hour with bioethicist Erika Blacksher reviews how Americans are faring today in relation to key aspirations of LBJ's Great Society, especially those that bear on health. Americans generally live shorter, less healthy lives than their counterparts in peer nations, and within the U.S. health varies dramatically among social and economic groups and from region to region. What ethical concerns are raised by significant health disparities? Are such disparities unjust, as many in public health assume? If so, what are our responsibilites, and what ethical limits might constrain our pursuit of a more equitable distribution of health? Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series and the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life
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- Date:
- 2015-02-04
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Dying in America is very different now from half a century ago. Before World War II, death usually occurred at home, often with no medical intervention. But with the bioscientific and medical advances that began in the 1950's, death became medicalized. In hospitals, it became possible to extend life. Often, patients were cured who would otherwise have died, but many endured protracted deaths in which suffering from treatment was worse than suffering from their fatal illness. Through the last decades of the 20th century, the medical and legal professions, medical ethicists, and the public began to consider ways to limit treatment, even to hasten death. It became generally accepted that all patients have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. Now, five U.S. states recognize physician-assisted suicide. In this Medical center hour, physician and former New England Journal of Medicine editor-in-chief Marcia Angell traces the history of these changes, then inquires into where we stand now on dying--and where we go from here. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2015-01-21
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Andreas Vesalius, long hailed as "the father of modern anatomy," is slipping into oblivion. The likes of Gray's Anatomy (the book), Netter's Atlas, plasticized dissected bodies, and online visible human specimens having eclipsed his splendidly illustrated book, On the Fabric of the Human Body (1543), as our definitive anatomy text. Vesalius's recent 500th birthday anniversary gives us a chance not only to celebrate this Renaissance genius, but also to consider how his accomplishments in the study of human anatomy helped medicine to become "modern." Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2014-11-12
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals enjoy ever greater social acceptance and legal protection, transgender teens and young adults still face challenges on many fronts. Simply negotiating adolescence isn't easy, and gender identity issues can complicate matters. Health care for transgender youth is in transition, as the population becomes better understood. In this Medical Center Hour, a panel of pediatricians makes the case for increased cultural competency in medicine and society alike to help give transgender teens a safe medical home and help them to lead satisfying, successful lives.
- Date:
- 2014-11-05
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- During the enlightenment, from 1765, the Habsburg Empire capital of Vienna underwent massive transformations in urban design and appearance, from the introduction of sewer systems and streetlights to urbanization of suburbs and construction of public facilities, including parks, all guided by principles we now consider fundamental to creating healthy, green, livable cities. Habsburg Emperor Joseph II (1780-1790), a reformer with almost utopian (and quite Jeffersonian) ideas about architecture and health, extended these massive changes by contructing Vienna's medical district, including the general hospital, the military hospital, an institute for the mentally ill, and the medical-surgical military academy Josephinum. What does it mean to "construct for health" in designing cities and landscapes, public and private spaces, and health care facilities? This Medical center hour examines the Vienna Project as an important design-and-health precedent. How might we in the twenty-first century enlist design professionals and health professionals together in more deliberate, collaborative efforts to improve public and personal health and well being? Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, the Center for Design + Health (School of Architecture), the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry (School of Nursing), and the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Humanities (School of Medicine), as part of the interprofessional symposium “Constructing for Health: A Global Nod to Nightingale,” funded by the Buckner W. Clay Endowment for the Humanities (College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)
- Date:
- 2014-10-29
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Over the last decade, the number of reports urging American universities to expose their health professional students to interprofessional education (IPE), so that those who will practice together may learn together, has exceeded the number of actual IPE experiences in most nursing and medical students' entire curricula. In 2013, strong new calls for interprofessional education came from the Institute of Medicine and the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. What does this mean for the University of Virginia's Schools of Nursing and Medicine, our students, our health systems, and the patients and families we serve? If we were to push the envelope on IPE, where might we best focus our efforts? How might we lead in preparing the next generation of nurses and physicians for better collaboration and team-based care? The Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture, School of Nursing
- Date:
- 2014-10-22
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Adverse events and poor patient outcomes occur for all doctors, regardless of subspecialty, regardless of educational and training pedigree, and despite best intentions. Such occurrences often exact a significant and sometimes lasting emotional toll on doctors, even apart from any culpability or potential medicolegal ramifications. In this Medical center hour Dr. Farnaz Gazoni demonstrates that adverse events in clinical care and their impact on physicians have substantial, widespread repercussions affecting quality of care and patient safety. But her research and experience show too that, by simply cultivating awareness of this issue, health care institutions and individual practitioners are taking important first steps toward culture change. The Jessie Stewart Richardson Memorial Lecture, School of Medicine In observance of National Quality Week (19-25 October), and co-presented with the Patient Safety Committee, UVA Health System
- Date:
- 2014-10-15
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- "Germs have always traveled. the problem now is they can travel with the speed of a jet plane." So said physician and medical historian Howard Markel in recent days, commenting on the spread of Ebola outside West Africa. This Medical center hour takes stock of the rapidly evolving Ebola epidemic and the concomitant rise in global health security concerns. What is known of this unusual virus and the life-threatening hemorrhagic fever it triggers? How are sociopolitical and cultural conditions and healthcare infrastructural inadequacies in West Africia and elsewhere hindering medical and public health response? How are governmental and health care institutions in the U.S. responding as cases erupt outside West Africia? And, looking ahead, what are the prospects for vaccine development and fast-track clinical trials? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Center for Global Health
- Date:
- 2014-10-08
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In this Medical center hour, prize-winning writer Leslie Jamison inquires into the phenomenon of empathy. It may be something more fraught then we often imagine it to be. Empathy isn't just an instinctive reaction but a more complicated blend of intuition and decision. And it's not neccessarily an unequivocal good. It can mislead. It can exhaust. Ms. Jamison draws on her experiences as a standardized patient, working with and observing student doctors getting "trained" in the practice of empathy, as well as her experiences as a journalist, inhabiting a vexed state of empathy for her subjects, to consider a variety of perspectives on what makes for good empathy and what good it can do. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2014-10-01
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In summer 2013, UVA landscape architecture graduate students Harriett Jameson and Asa Eslocker travelled to Sardinia, Okinawa, and Loma Linda, California, three landscapes with the highest life expectancy in the world, to explore these places' physical, spatial, and material qualities-topography, plant communitites,urban form-and also the personal attachments that seniors in these sites have to their cultural landscapes. The people in these locales have long been studied for their genetics, diets, and recreation habits. But until Ms. Jameson and Mr. Eslocker arrived, no one had inquired into or demonstrated in these settings the critical role of place in healthy longevity. Through study of these distinctive landscapes and the personal stories of elderly residents, the pair arrived at insights that may help communities rethink and redesign public landscapes to cultivate a culture of health and well being that spans infancy through old age. In this Medical center hour, Ms. Jameson and Mr. Eslocker focus on how place contributes to healthy aging and preview parts of their full-length documentary film, Landscapes of longevity, which will premiere in Charlottesville in November. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Center for Design + Health, School of Architecture, UVA
- Date:
- 2014-09-24
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Growing enthusiasm in medicine and in the population at large for early diagnosis has engaged many doctors in a systematic search for abnormalitites in persons who are well. While physicians, patients, and the press tend to focus on the potential benefits, Dr. H. Gilbert Welch in his work has exposed the often-ignored harm associated with this practice: overdiagnosis. Diagnoses of a great many conditions, including high blood pressure, osteoporosis, diabetes (and prediabetes), and even cancer, have skyrocketed in recent years, yet many individuals so labeled are destined never to develop symptoms, much less die, from their conditions. They are overdiagnosed. And overdiagnosed patients as Dr. Welch points out in the Medical Center Hour, cannot benefit from treatment since there is nothing to fix. But they can be harmed. Understanding the trade-offs involved is critical, Dr. Welch argues, so that health care systems don't further narrow the definition of "normal" and, ironically, turn more and more well persons into patients. Co-presented with the Department of Public Health Sciences, School of Medicine; the Sadie Lewis Webb Program in Health Law, School of Law; and the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, UVA
- Date:
- 2014-09-17
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Acclaimed physician-writer Christine Montross (Body of work, 2007; and Falling into the fire, 2013) discusses how diving deeply into her most challenging patient encounters has led her to the ancient concept of "abiding" as a lost tenet of patient care. A psychiatrist and medical educator, Dr. Montross speaks in defense of repugnance, and encourages physicians and doctors-in-training to acknowlege, rather than suppress the discomforts which naturally arise in the practice of medicine. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2014-09-10
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- At a time of sweeping transitions in health care, medical students and young physicians are eager for guidance as to how best to apply their knowledge and skills in caring for patients. In clinical settings, and especially in primary care, who might be the best role models for young trainees to emulate? What skills and traits do the best clinicians use to create healing relationships with patients? How do clinicians become "healers" -that is, practitioners effective in making the patient-professional relationship itself have active therapeutic potential? Professor Larry Churchill and colleagues at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have examined these matters, interviewing both clinicians and patients on the vital question of what actually makes for a therapeutic encounter, even in the context of a stressed and changing health care system. In this Medical Center Hour, Professor Churchill will present his studies' findings as a prelude to disscussion of the implications for medical ethics and medical education and for establishing truly "patient-centered" practices.
- Date:
- 2014-04-02
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Despite their reliance on technical knowledge that requires mastery, medicine, law, and business are all deeply human professions. Medicine is more than body repair, law more than legal systems, business more than the physics of money. While professional education necessarily must be at the cutting edge of technical expertise, it must remember too the human nature—including the values, emotions, and richly complicated lives—of professionals and professional organizations. In this Medical Center Hour, Professor Ed Freeman from UVA's Darden School of Business demonstrates how the creative arts and humanities can be embedded in professional education to address and actively teach ethical conduct in professional life and leadership of complex professional organizations. What lessons in course design, student engagement, and classroom outcomes might medical educators draw from Professor Freeman's courses, "Business Ethics through Literature" and "Leadership, Ethics, and Theater"? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, UVA
- Date:
- 2014-03-26
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- How should we imagine the history of distraction? Is it true that the internet has made us distracted in a way that we never have been before? And, if it has, is that necessarily bad? What is distraction, anyway? In this Medical center hour, East Asian cultural historian Shigehisa Kuriyama suggests that comparative reflection on images of skulls and skeletons can offer us illuminating insight into these questions, and into the entwining of distraction with art, anatomy, curiosity, and early modern global trade. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
- Date:
- 2014-03-25
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Date:
- 2014-03-19
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In its emphasis on instrumentality, on the patient as something to be acted upon, and on the doctor as an abstracted agent of diagnosis and treatment, medicine often neglects the practitioner's involvement in the clinical scene. Recent attempts to direct attention to this aspect of practice have been stymied by medicine's nearly exclusive reliance on a quantitative, positivist disposition, with which humanist scholarship has had difficulty gaining traction. The narrative medicine movement, as articulated by Dr. Rita Charon of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, has gained widespread attention within the medical academy. But physician and literature scholar Dr. Terrence Holt argues that, for all its positive features (and despite Dr. Charon's efforts to define it otherwise), narrative medicine as applied remains committed to an interventional model that is at odds with the strengths of the humanities. Drawing on readings of texts such as Shakespeare's King Lear, Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Shelley's Frankenstein, and the poetry of John Keats, Dr. Holt contends that the value of the humanities in medical education and practice is not as an intervention but as a diagnostic modality—and that the proper first object of diagnosis may not be the patient, but the physician. The Ellis Moore Lecture of the School of Medicine
- Date:
- 2014-03-12
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Primum non nocere--"first, do no harm"--is a fundamental principle of medical practice, expressing both the hope and humility of physicians. It cautions doctors that even with the best intentions may come unwarranted consequences. One present-day application of this principle has to do with efforts to eliminate hospital-acquired infections. When we define such infections as inevitable if regrettable collateral damage wherever complex care is provided to very sick patients, we create a rationale for paying for them and institutionalize their harm. And we may lose sight of their tragic human and economic costs, and of clinicians' own involvement. The annual Richardson memorial lecture addresses the human toll of medical error and calls for improved patient safety. In this Richardson lecture, Dr. Richard Shannon challenges the academic medical center not only to create safer systems that prevent bloodstream infections but also to invest every frontline worker with the capability and responsibility to see and solve problems before they propagate into error. Importantly, this is about more than safety. It is about culture change, creating a culture of habitual excellence in everything we do. Safety is simply the unassailable starting point. Another foundational medical principle applies: Cura te ipsum--"physician, heal thyself." Co-presented with the Patient Safety Committee, UVA Health System
- Date:
- 2014-03-05
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- American medical education can be proud of its accomplishments. Its graduates populate a sophisticated medical system that often sets global standards in teaching and self-regulation. doctors the world over compete to train and practice in the U.S. There are nearly three applicants for every one place in U.S. medical schools. Things are good. But are they? The U.S. medical system is now by far the world's most expensive, a drag on the economy and a major contributor to accumulating national debt. Physician-writer Atul Gawande notes that the doctor's most expensive instrument is the pen, ordering costly, and sometimes unnecessary, diagnostics and therapeutics. We import a quarter of our doctors, yet major portions of the country are short of physicians. All is not well in medical education. In this Brodie Medical Education Lecture, distinguished physician and health policy expert Dr. Fitzhugh Mullan addresses the technical, cultural, and moral challenges facing American medical education today, and how they go straight to the soul of medicine. Co-presented with the Brodie Medical Education Committee, the Department of Medicine, and the Academy of Distinguished Educators, as part of UVA's Medical Education Week
- Date:
- 2014-02-26
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- The Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM) is perhaps the most contested document in American medicine, vital for the organization and funding of psychiatric research and mental health care, yet perennially criticized both from within and behond the mental health community. Heated debate accompanied the 2013 publication of the manual's fifth edition, DSM-5. Critics charged that the new edition masks political interests (e.g. interests of psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies) under the guise of science at patients' expense. DSM-5 defenders championed the inclusiveness and transparency of the review process and evidence-base behind the manual's diagnostic decisions. In this Medical center hour, psychiatrist and theologian Warren Kinghorn argues for a mediating alternative: that the DSM may be best understood as neither an apolitical "encyclopedia" of psychopathology nor a political cloak for psychatric power, but rather as a working document of a living moral tradition. In this case the tradition-constituted discourse allows for appreciation of the DSM as a useful scientific document that reflects the moral assumptions and convictions of the communities that created and continue to sustain it. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2014-02-12
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- At a time when lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals enjoy unprecedented social acceptance and legal protection, many LGBT elders face the daily challenges of aging isolated from family, detached from the larger LGBT community, and ignored by mainstream aging initiatives. These elders are more likely to be single, childless, financially insecure, fearful of encountering bias in health care settings, and socially isolated. And the continuing silence surrounding LGBT elders has left many of them underserved and at risk. This Medical Center Hour makes the case that increased cultural competency measures are necessary within medicine and society to help older LGBT persons overcome barriers to successful aging and to ensure that we are all taking good care of our LGBT elders. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture co-presented with qMD A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture co-presented with qMD
- Date:
- 2014-02-05
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In this Medical Center Hour, Ellen Ficklen, the former editor of "Narrative Matters," takes us behind the scenes at Health Affairs to probe the close working relationship between authors and editors as manuscripts are sculpted and polished into essays that surgeon/author Atul Gawande describes as "some of health care's most stunning writing." A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2014-01-29
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In 1858, young English surgeons Henry Gray and Henry VanDyke Carter published an illustrated anatomy textbook for medical students. Gray's Anatomy has never since been out of print, but little was known about its author and illustrator until acclaimed science writer Bill Hayes—inspired by a photograph of Henry Gray—pieced together their story in The Anatomist. This Medical Center Hour explores the medical, historical, and artistic significance of Gray's Anatomy and also Hayes's unforgettable year alongside medical students in the anatomy lab. Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, Historical Collections, Claude Moore Health Sciences Library
- Date:
- 2013-11-06
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- On 13 June 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down patents on the hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (BRCA) genes. One company, Utah-based Myriad Genetics, claimed ownership of those genes and both marketed and processed the test for them. Myriad now controls the genetic data of all the persons tested for BRCA. In the wake of the 9-0 ruling against Myriad, there's considerable debate about who owns this genetic information and who should control it. Should it be held by a private company or in a commons? Should control rest with the BRCA+ community? "Free the Data," a new grass-roots campaign, brings voices of BRCA+ individuals and biomedical investigators alike into this debate. In this Medical Center Hour, documentary filmmaker Joanna Rudnick, together with law and medical experts from UVA, discuss what's at stake in freeing the data. Co-presented with the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, the Department of Public Health Sciences, and the Cancer Center's Breast Care Program, UVA The Hollingsworth Lecture in Practical Ethics
- Date:
- 2013-10-30
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Over the past decade, several leading U.S. medical schools have developed courses combining art appreciation and clinical observation skills. Medical students venture from the clinical setting to the art gallery, where they are challenged by gallery educators and medical professors to observe and to articulate what they see in the art before them. Such courses aim to cultivate and deepen students' visual literacy, verbal facility, and tolerance for ambiguity with the expectation that more finely tuned visual observation and communication skills will help them to be better doctors. Working with a task force in the UVA School of Medicine, Fralin Museum of Art academic curator Jordan Love has created and piloted The Clinician's Eye, an interactive workshop that aims to refine apprentice clinicians' skills through training in visual analysis. This Medical Center Hour invites audience members to participate—hands-on—in a version of this workshop. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-10-23
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Questions about transplant candidate suitability and priority made headlines earlier this year, when 10-year-old Sarah Murnaghan's parents went to court (and to the media) to request that their daughter, dying of cystic fibrosis, be placed on the eligibility list for a lung transplant. The court's decision, UNOS's followup (Sarah got a new, fictitious birthdate to qualify to receive adult lungs), and Sarah's two double-lung procedures galvanized the transplant community, bioethicists, policymakers, and the public alike. Even as efforts continue to increase the organ supply, what should we do about our allocation systems? In this Medical Center Hour, three experts engage the medical, legal, and ethical questions raised by the Sarah Murnaghan case. Co-presented with the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-10-16
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- What would it mean to name pain not as alien to human existence but as one of the defining conditions of being human? In this presentation, three experts--in disability studies, bioethics, and the cultural study of pain and pain medicine--consider our complicated attitudes toward pain, especially as we regard it in others. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-10-09
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Emily Levine does for science what Jon Stewart does for news: she critiques it, she makes it relevant, she makes it funny. She brings her experiences as a patient in search of a diagnosis and a curative path to physical health and notes that in order to regain metaphysical health, she had to enter a universe of randomness, uncertainty, and turbulence. She reasons that only quantum physics and chaos theory can make sense of this new universe, and possibly of medicine today. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-10-02
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Physician-author Lisa Sanders, who writes the popular "Diagnosis" column in The New York Times Magazine and "Think Like a Doctor" blog for the New York Times, probes the crucial exchanges between doctor and patient that are at the heart of every medical mystery and its solution. The Koppaka Family Foundation Lecture in Medical Humanities
- Date:
- 2013-09-25
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Musicologist April Greenan outlines use of music in western medicine as an agent of both healing and prevention, reviewing data documenting music's beneficial effects on patients, and suggests ways that health professionals might purposefully employ music in patient care. How might doctors guide patients to use music on their own in managing pain, anxiety, depression, the side-effects of chemotherapy? Given the ubiquity and affordability of recorded music today, might it represent a cost-effective way to help improve health care and health? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-09-18
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In September 1925, while the family of English composer, Herbert Howells, was on vacation in the English countryside, their son, nine-yer-old Michael Howells fell ill with polio and died in London three days later. Howells channeled his grief into the composition of the "Requiem," which drew heavily on an earlier, unpublished work. In this Medical Center Hour, fourth-year medical student and musician Rondy Michael Lazaro explores the historical context of polio in the 1930s and how the loss of Howells's young son played out in the composer's music. Mr. Lazaro conducts a chamber chorus in the performance of two movements from Howell's "Requiem." Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2013-09-11
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Dr. Romero shares insights regarding the increasingly important partnership of public health and primary care and the critical need for a strong, patient-centered primary care framework to improve health outcomes. Co-presented with the Generalist Scholars Program and the Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA, in observance at UVA of Primary Care Week
- Date:
- 2013-09-04
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Dr. Aaron Vinik recounts his journey through the golden years of biomedical and clinical research as he has studied and tested regeneration of pancreatic islet cells and nerve fibers. There are lessons here for coming generations of physician-scientists--about discovery, about collaboration, about being mentored, about, as Ralph Waldo Emerson suggests, venturing where there is no path and leaving a trail. The Alpha Omega Alpha Lecture of the School of Medicine
- Date:
- 2013-04-03
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Some physicians are born to write, while others have writing thrust upon them. As one of the latter, 2013 Moore Lecturer Margaret Mohrmann discusses what she has learned from writing about doctoring. The act of articulating her experiences as a pediatrician and teacher has shown her, over time, much more about her encounters with patients, and about herself, than she could see at the time those events occurred - or even at the time she wrote about them. Rereading one's own stories and having others read (and co-construct) them can expose the "ghost" in the story - "the story's silent twin," as British novelist Jeanette Winterson puts it. What couldn't be said, or wasn't noticed, or was forgotten often gets written in anyway, quietly, between the lines and within word choices and narrative structures. The process of discovering what went unseen before cultivates in both writer and reader the practice of paying close, compassionate attention to what's happening now, an essential ingredient of good doctoring. The Moore Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-03-20
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- We hear almost daily about the rapidly increasing rate of type 2 diabetes in the U.S. population. Many pronouncements are dire, proclaiming an "epidemic," and most make it sound as though this problem is relatively new-just three or four decades old. Yet almost 100 years ago a small group of U.S. health care professionals was already warning that diabetes was "a public health problem," fated to become worse if nothing was done soon. But what did they mean by this? Why had they grown concerned? And what measures did they recommend to try and reverse the upward trend in diabetes rates? In this Medical Center Hour, historian Arleen Tuchman asks what we can learn from history that might help us understand better how we are framing the diabetes "crisis" today, and why. How do cultural assumptions about diabetes, and about the particular populations believed to be most at risk, influence not only our understanding of this disease but also our efforts to gain control over it? Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2013-03-13
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Viewing women through an androcentric lens, Western medicine from Hippocrates and Galen forward explained women's behavior from headache to "troublemaking" as unhealthful signs of "hysteria," a suffocating madness believed due to a wandering womb. Centuries, even millennia before Freud asked, "What do women really want?" medical men assumed they knew what women with hysteria needed, and that remedy was pelvic massage to "paroxysm." By the late nineteenth century, with manufacture of electrified massage instruments, doctors could deliver said therapy more quickly and efficiently. This medical treatment, the Victorian social milieu in which it was prevalent (and popular), and (mis)understandings of female sexuality, intimacy, and inequality are the subjects of young American playwright Sarah Ruhl's comedy, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play (2010). This Medical Center Hour's panelists explore a rich mix of ideas having to do with women, medicine, and The Vibrator Play. Offered in conjunction with LiveArts' production of "In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play", 1-23 March
- Date:
- 2013-02-27
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- As our companion animals grow old and infirm, veterinarians and human caregivers alike face a complex and confusing array of choices and decisions. This Medical Center Hour explores some of the central moral challenges in end-of-life care for animals, from pain management and quality-of-life assessments to palliative treatment, hospice care, and making that final decision to hasten an animal's death. Considering this "last walk" with our pets, bioethicist Jessica Pierce and compassionate care advocate Susan Bauer-Wu borrow some ethical guideposts from the field of human bioethics (and offer a few in return). A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, UVA
- Date:
- 2013-02-20
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Since its creation in 1999, the same year the Institute of Medicine issued its landmark report, To err is human, the Richardson Memorial Lecture has sparked and sustained conversation at the University of Virginia on the sensitive subject of medical error. The annual lectures ever since have brought to UVA noted experts on medical mistakes, communication about error, and the importance of clinicians' attending carefully to patients as persons. Collectively, the Richardson Lectures have provided opportunities for students, clinicians, educators, and administrators to learn better how to prevent medical errors, communicate about them when they do happen, improve quality of care in complex clinical systems, and assure patients and families of the best possible care and outcomes. The 2013 Richardson Lecturer is internationally known patient-safety expert Dr. Peter J. Pronovost, whose scientifically validated checklist protocol, developed at the Johns Hopkins University, is improving patient safety in health care institutions across the US and the world. Co-presented with the Patient Safety Committee, UVA Health System
- Date:
- 2013-02-13
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- With availability of medical interventions like cochlear implants to treat deafness, health professionals caring for deaf persons or helping families make reproductive choices about deafness (as in prenatal genetic screening) tend to work from biomedical rather than cultural understandings of deafness. Deaf Americans have produced a fascinating literary corpus over the last 200 years, both writing in English and creating stories and poems in American Sign Language. Similarly, the work of deaf visual artists illustrates powerfully how deafness may be construed as visual and conceptual gain rather than as hearing loss. These expressions of deaf culture also respond to the pathologization and medicalization of deafness in our society, resist the majority's assumptions and norms, and argue for the value of the deaf community and sign. This Medical center hour explores deaf literature and visual art to suggest that a deeper understanding of deaf culture can help health professionals to provide better care and counsel, medically and ethically speaking, to deaf patients and their families. Co-presented with the Department of English and the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series, UVA
- Date:
- 2013-02-06
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- There's much mythology surrounding eating disorders. Myth: these are time-imited illnesses that resolve when a woman leaves adolescence. Myth: only women experience eating disorders. In a society that reveres bodily thinness and now also celebrates the extremely "fit" body, at once lean and overtly muscular, an estimated 25 to 30 million Americans currently suffer from an eating disorder. Most eating disorders look nothing like the stereotypes suggested by sensational media coverage. The afflicted include men and women of all ages and all ethnicities. And so alongside this country's well-publicized obesity epidemic rages another, quite invisible epidemic of eating disorders. This Medical Center Hour addresses eating disorders and related questions from three perspectives. Speakers include a UVA student in recovery, a parent and national advocate, and the coordinator of the prevention program at UVA's Women's Center. What role does family play in eating disorders? How as health professionals do we ensure that patients get the best treatment? What treatments are most effective? How can we, health professionals and laypersons alike, best support someone who is suffering? What resources are available at UVA and how do we get involved? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the Women's Center, UVA
- Date:
- 2013-01-30
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Deborah Salem Smith's acclaimed play Love alone is the story of what happens after a routine medical procedure goes tragically wrong. A medical malpractice lawsuit ensues, and the lives of both the patient's family and the doctor charged with her care are transformed. The play tracks the fallout in both homes. It is a portrait of how each family grieves and heals. These questions were central in the construction of the plot: Is forgiveness a single act or a daily act? Is it unconditional? Who has the right to forgive? Does forgiveness require remorse or an apology by the offender? Do lawsuits empower victims and thus aid the grieving process, or do they disrupt grieving? Does proving negligence make a victim more prepared to forgive? What does a lawsuit mean for the doctor sued, and for his or her personal journey of recovering from the unexpected death of a patient? George Bernard Shaw famously quipped, "We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession." What are the implications and burdens of such faith? This Medical Center Hour explores Love Alone with the playwright and local actors but also with a physician who has written on doctors' efforts to deal with their own mistakes. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2013-01-23
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- With health care reform on the near horizon and other social realities (aging, immigration, chronic conditions, quests for prevention and wellness) dramatically changing health care in the U.S., what kinds of doctors will our health care system (and its patients) require? Clearly, not just medical school curricula but also the selection process for medical students will be key determinants of whether we have physicians fully prepared to practice as the 21st century progresses. This Medical center hour addresses transformational changes underway in the pre-professional preparation and selection of the nation's medical students, including a new version of the MCAT exam, which goes "live" in 2015. What does this new MCAT signal for premedical students as they prepare for medical school? How might colleges and universities offer their premedical students academic experiences that will better equip them for medical school and medical practice in the 21st century? Co-presented with the Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures, UVa A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2012-11-14
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Since passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010, this particular road to health care reform in the U.S. has been riddled with political potholes and subject to slowdowns as a result of legislative and judicial challenges. But with the Supreme Court's landmark stamp of constitutional approval this past June and with President Obama's reelection on 6 November, it is now clear that some form of "Obamacare" is here to stay, at least for four more years. Indeed, repeal of the ACA may no longer be a top Republican priority, as House Speaker John Boehner noted on 8 November: "The election changes that-Obamacare is the law of the land." So what's ahead as we implement the ACA? In this Medical Center Hour, Washington and Lee law professor and ACA expert Timothy Jost and University of Virginia health policy analyst Carolyn Engelhard outline what must be accomplished in order to realize this ambitious overhaul of our health care system. And what will be the responsibilities of and implications for academic health centers like UVA as the ACA takes effect? Co-presented with the Sadie Lewis Webb Program in Law and Health, the Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life, the Department of Public Health Sciences, and the Bioethics and Health Policy Medical Student Interest Group A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
- Date:
- 2012-11-07
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- RN-MD collaboration in health care (or the lack thereof) is one of the more vexed issues facing our struggling health care system. Yet it rarely gets addressed in a substantive and purposeful way. The problem begins with the training of nurses and doctors. Nursing schools have seldom taught the nuts and bolts of working with physicians. Medical schools have taught future doctors almost nothing about working with nurses. Often the result in clinical practice is that each group finds the other difficult. Even so, nurse-physician collaboration is what makes health care possible, and good collaboration makes high quality care much more likely. In this Medical center hour, nurse and author Theresa Brown considers new, potentially revolutionary initiatives in health professional education, including at UVA, that bring nursing and medical students together as learners. Will interprofessional education lead to better RN-MD collaboration in practice and, as a result, to better patient care? The Zula Mae Baber Bice Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the School of Nursing
- Date:
- 2012-10-24
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- The design of sustainable, just, and economically feasible environments for human health and well-being is one of the most urgent needs of the 21st century on a global scale. Aging populations, environmental pollution, rapid urbanization, increased poverty, rising health care costs, the need for preventive medicine, and new developments in social and medical science have created a host of design challenges and opportunities. In this Medical Center Hour, Tim Beatley and Reuben Rainey, co-directors of the UVA School of Architecture's new Center for Design and Health, explore ways designers and planners are meeting these challenges at a variety of scales, ranging from patient-centered health care facilities to healthy neighborhoods and cities.
- Date:
- 2012-10-17
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST) is an initiative gaining acceptance across the country as a way for patients and families to ensure that care at the end of life is not only consistent with a patient's preferences, as expressed in a treating physician's orders, but also is consistent throughout the health care system, including across institutional boundaries. A completed POST form is an instrument that travels with the patient from one health care setting to another, as, for instance, from a nursing home to a hospital, and should be honored in all venues. Unlike traditional advance directives, POST is a physician's order, and is to be followed as such. Implementing POST is a process being handled state by state, with Oregon in the lead. In Virginia, pilot studies are underway in different regions of the Commonwealth and different hospital systems, with different forms and protocols. What's happening with POST in Central Virginia and at UVA? Are all of us-patients, physicians and other clinicians, and administrators alike-ready for POST? A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture Co-presented with the UVA Medical Center's Office of Patient/Family Education and Communication and the Compassionate Care Initiative, School of Nursing
- Date:
- 2012-10-10
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- As a UVA undergraduate (Class of 2010), Pennsylvania native Matthew Miller had a catastrophic, near fatal cycling accident on the Blue Ridge Parkway while training for an Ironman triathlon. He lost control of his bike as a caravan of classic cars passed by in the opposite lane; Miller plowed into an oncoming Porsche, breaking every bone in his face. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Michael Vitez's articles about Miller for The Philadephia Inquirer (reprinted in the Charlottesville Daily Progress) led to his book, The road back: a story of grit and grace (2012). This compelling narrative of Miller's remarkable survival and recovery. He is now a third year medical student at the University of Pennsylvania not only celebrates the strength and resiliency of the human spirit but also vividly attests to the power of medicine at its best. This Medical center hour, with Michael Vitez and UVA surgeon J. Forrest Calland, one of Miller's doctors, suggests that the best way to explore and explain what's happening in medicine may be to tell stories of ordinary people, patients and professionals meeting extraordinary challenges. A John F. Anderson Memorial Lecture
148. Echoes of the heart, a cardiologist discovers his patients through poetry and photography (1:01:48)
- Date:
- 2012-10-03
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Patients sometimes complain that they are neither heard by nor really known to their doctors especially, perhaps, subspecialists to whom they've been referred for particular procedures and fear that, as a result, they may receive substandard care. Similarly, in fast paced practice, some physicians, including said subspecialists, may find it difficult to know their patients as persons. Cardiologist Joseph Gascho M.D. met these challenges for himself and his patients by devising ways he could hear and know the persons in his care through the media of photography and poetry. This Medical Center Hour examines doctors' use of the arts to improve the care that patients receive. Dr. Gascho describes three projects that have helped him to bridge the patienthood personhood gulf, enabling him to better understand his patients as individuals and to give them whole person care. He is joined by physician Julia Connelly M.D. for whom photography has become a way to bring care and connection with nature to elderly persons, including nursing home residents.
- Date:
- 2012-09-26
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- Social and cultural factors, as well as biomedical ones, shape the way we understand and react to diseases. In the case of a disease associated with sex, social and cultural factors figure especially prominently in its history. Since moral and religious views influence almost everything connected with sex, including sexually transmitted infections (STI), syphilis can be an excellent case study to help us appreciate disease in a broader human context. This Medical Center Hour delves into the story of syphilis in America, from colonial times to the present; it looks back too at the origins and spread of the disease in Europe. How did medical science come to understand syphilis and develop treatments for it? What about public health protections against this socially stigmatized STI from prevention campaigns and quarantine of infected persons (usually, women only) to mandated reporting of infections? To what extent does syphilis's identity as an infection popularly associated with sex and sin complicate our response to it and to persons who contract and suffer with it? Finally, how might American social and cultural stigmas around syphilis have contributed to the intentions behind and conduct of the U.S. Public Health Service's unethical research studies at Tuskegee (1932-1972) and in Guatemala (1946-1948)? Co-presented with the History of the Health Sciences Lecture Series
- Date:
- 2012-09-19
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- With the aging of our nation's practicing physicians and the recent, steep decline in medical graduates choosing careers in primary care for adults, U.S. patients today are hard pressed to find a primary care doctor. And the already impressive gap between supply and demand of primary care physicians will likely widen once more than 30 million people gain access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The urgent shortage of primary care physicians compounds this country's already significant health care challenges regarding access, delivery, and cost of care. In an era when all of health care is undergoing potentially transformative change, what will be the role of primary care doctors? For patients, what will be the "value added" of having a primary care M.D.? What roles will other primary providers (physician assistants, nurse practitioners) play? Is the primary care physician an endangered species, or a key participant in a newly configured primary care team? How can we devise, model, deploy, and teach new ways of delivering primary care that are team based, interprofessionally collaborative, effective, and satisfying to patients and practitioners alike? In this Medical Center Hour, family doctor and medical journalist Susan Okie draws on her recent Perspective article in the New England Journal of Medicine to explore the prospects ahead for the primary care physician. Two of UVA's primary care physicians: one a mid career family medicine physician and teacher, the other a medical student planning a primary care career offer their perspectives as well. Co-presented with the Generalist Scholars Program in observance at UVA of Primary Care Week
- Date:
- 2012-09-12
- Main contributors:
- University of Virginia. School of Medicine
- Summary:
- In 1990, University of Pittsburgh Public Health Professor John C. Cutler delivered to the university's archives thousands of pages of documents and photographs about an unpublished research project that he ran in Guatemala for the U.S. and Guatemalan governments between 1946 and 1948. Duly cataloged, the files then sat in the library until the mid 2000s, when historian Susan Reverby began to read them as part of her book project on the Tuskegee syphilis studies. Who knew that the infamous U.S. Public Health Service Study of Untreated Syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama, had an off shore successor? Unlike Tuskegee, the Guatemala studies led by Dr. Cutler involved actual inoculation of sexually transmitted diseases and the paying of sex workers to transmit disease. Unsuspecting and unconsenting prisoners, soldiers, mental patients, and sex workers participated; only some were treated if and when they became infected. In 2009, Professor Reverby returned to the Pittsburgh archive, and in 2010 she wrote up her findings on the Guatemala project. She shared her unpublished article with the late David Sencer, former director of the Centers for Disease Conrol (CDC), who gave the article to the current CDC leadership. The CDC prepared its own report and sent it, along with the Reverby article, up the chain of command to the White House. On Oct. 1, 2010, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton apologized to the Guatemalan government and President Obama telephoned then President Colom in Guatemala to explain. In the spotlight of worldwide media attention, presidential commissions in both countries undertook investigations, and survivors of the study filed suit against the U.S. government. The Guatemala study and its aftermath have urgently renewed debate about the ethics of clinical research involving human participants, especially research carried out with vulnerable populations and in the global arena. In this Medical Center Hour, Susan Reverby discusses how her discovery of the Guatemala study files set in motion international investigative and diplomatic processes and what we can learn from this ethically immoral use of medical science. Bioethicist John Arras, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, will comment on the commission's investigation and its 2011 report, Ethically impossible: STD research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Parts one and two. Location shots related to attorney Samuel Wilbert Tucker in Alexandria, VA.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Parts one to four. Footage of Washington DC during the Bicentennial of the Constitution Parade.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Footage of the bust of Charles Houston at Howard University.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Part one. Journalist John Norton describes the education situation in Clarendon County, South Carolina. At 7:18, footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including rural roads, Liberty Hill Church, cotton gin. Part two. Footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including cotton picking. Part three. Footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including cotton picking, cemetery and church, sunset.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Footage of Columbia University in New York, New York.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Footage of Howard University.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Footage of different places at Howard University.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola, Hill, Oliver W., 1907-2007
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Oliver Hill and law professor A.E. Dick Howard discuss the Constitutional Revision Commission of Virginia in 1968 in front of the Capitol in Richmond. They go over Virginia Constitution history, including how the 1902 Constitution was written with the intent to discriminate against African Americans. Mr. Hill speaks about Massive Resistance, and Mr. Howard comments on awkward interpretations of the Virginia Constitution that let public schools close to avoid integration in the 1950s. The 1968 Virginia Constitution finally included an antidiscrimination clause. Mr. Hill and Mr. Howard relate the reasons why they went into constitutional law. Part two. Continuation of discussion about the 1968 Constitutional Revision Commission of Virginia.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Judge Higginbotham asserts that the United States Constitution was not revelant to African Americans when it was written except to further enslave them. Judge Higginbotham offers a legal history of the colonies and slavery. Slavery was not codified until 1660, Virginia was the mother of slavery, and Virginia law in the early 1800s made it illegal to teach African Americans to read and write. Judge Higginbotham talks about Charles Coatsworth Pinckney, Judge Ruffin, and how America's success was only possible via slave labor. Part two. Judge Higginbotham's history lesson continues. The 14th amendment was intended to take racism out of American society via due process, but it became the primary instrument to help corporations and everyone else but African Americans. Plessy v. Ferguson codified the separate but equal doctrine, which extended discrimination from trains to just about everywhere else, as the Supreme Court had said it was “reasonable” to do so. The warped interpretation of the 14th amendment impacted women as well. The US Constitution was also originally meaningless to women. Higginbotham discusses Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy. Part three. Judge Higginbotham explains that Brown v. Board of Education was brought about by earlier cases. Brown was the ninth inning victory compared to all the work that had gone before in civil rights, including Gaines v. Missouri, Sweatt v. Painter, and McLaurin v. Oklahoma. Higginbotham discusses Collins Seitz, first state judge to order desegregation of a school. He also talks about Charles Hamilton Houston, William Hastie, Thurgood Marshall, and Howard University Law School. Part four. Judge Higginbotham recalls the Marian Anderson incident in Philadelphia in 1939. He also discusses the extension of legal strategy in civil rights cases beyond education into employment and voting rights, as in Smith v. Allwright. Higginbotham details the extensive pattern of violence in the South and the manipulation of the voter registration process. For example, registrars would ask African Americans for absurd qualification information, such as the number of gallons of water in the ocean. Judge Higginbotham recalls cases about labor unions, railways, housing rights, restrictive covenants in the 1940s, and fair housing in 1968. Part five. Judge Higginbotham's advice to young people: don't try to save the entire world, try to save the people next to you. Higginbotham discusses Powell v. Alabama, the Scottsboro case, Brown v. Mississippi, and John W. Davis.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Alice Jackson Stuart recounts her experiences as the first African American student to apply to the University of Virginia. When Donald Gaines Murray applied to University of Maryland School of Law, Ms. Stuart (who already had a bachelor's degree from Virginia Union University in 1933) spoke with family friend and Murray's lawyer Charles Hamilton Houston about helping to advance integration of higher education by provoking a legal case via her application to the University of Virginia graduate school of education. Part two. Ms. Stuart recalls different events that occurred during litigation of her case during 1935 and 1936. She explains that when the Virginia General Assembly passed a bill awarding scholarships and living expenses to minority students to attend out-of-state schools, she applied to and then attended Columbia University for her master's degree. She talks about other important Virginians who benefited from the bill, including Spotswood Robinson. She also discusses her teaching career. Part three. Ms. Stuart talks about witnessing a lynch mob, which ended in the killing of African American taxi driver Lee Snell, at Bethune-Cookman University where she taught. She also discusses teaching at Howard University, the Richmond public school system, Rutgers University, and Middlesex County College in New Jersey, among other career accomplishments.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Footage of Tuskegee, Alabama. At 10:55, William Elwood interviews Allan Parker in his yard. Parker was a banker in Tuskegee who fought for desegregation and voter registration. Parker describes his involvement with the Tuskegee Civic Association. He wanted to preserve the public school system for all races and didn't support private white schools. Parker also discusses the role of lawyers in the civil rights movement.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. J. Clay Smith talks about Charles Hamilton Houston as the architect of the modern civil rights movement. From 3:50 to 10:40, footage of Houston and William Hastie portraits. From 10:40 to end, Alvin J. Bronstein interviewed in his office. As a young lawyer Mr. Bronstein traveled south in 1964 for Freedom Summer. He was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to work on a law suit that would force hotels to serve African Americans. He then went to Mississippi and stayed for five years as a trial lawyer in Macomb where there had been 37 church bombings. He set up offices around the South as part of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee funded by the ACLU. In 1968, civil rights cases in Mississippi had changed from defense of African Americans to cases advocating for rights. Part two. After Mississippi Mr. Bronstein went to Harvard for three years, then down to New Orleans, where he set up a training program for young African American lawyers. In 1972, he started the ACLU National Prison Project after the Attica prison riot. Mr. Bronstein describes what happened at Attica State Prison in New York. He explains the connection between civil rights and prisoner rights movements. He discusses what prisoner rights are or should be, the state of prisoner rights law in the mid-1980s, the death penalty, and incarceration rates. He says that poor people and people of color make up the prison population, and incarceration is not cost-effective. Part three. Mr. Bronstein recalls Judge Harold Cox in Mississippi referring to African Americans as chimpanzees while in court; the same judge presided over the trial of law enforcement officers for killing Chaney, Schwerner, Goodman in Mississippi in 1967, and he expressed outrage at the defendants and said the guilty verdict rendered was the proudest moment of his career. Lolis Elie, Nils Douglas, and Robert Collins were lawyers who practiced together but couldn't take the same taxi or eat in the same restaurant; now, these lawyers are highly placed judges in Mississippi. Mr. Bronstein says that Scandinavian countries have the best example of an incarceration system and that allowing prisoners to maintain contact with families is an important part of rehabilitation. Mr. Bronstein discusses a famous case called Battle v. Anderson.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Attorney Oliver Hill reviews Virginia's policy of Massive Resistance, the General Assembly's Boatwright committee and Thompson committee, Virginia courts and judges, and the people placement board. At 11:20, Anne Hobson Freeman talks about her new book on the law firm of Hunton and Williams in Richmond. The firm represented the school board of Prince Edward County in 1951 when students there sued the district for integration. Part two. Freeman relates the history of the Hunton and Williams Law firm in Richmond, Virginia, especially pertaining to the 1951 Prince Edward County integration case and Richmond integration cases. She states that the firm employed lawyers whose opinions fell on both sides of the integration issue. She also discusses several of the firm's lawyers individually.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Professor Beulah Johnson reviews being a teacher in Tuskegee, Alabama, living in a segregated society, what the "black" part of town was like, voter registration, her involvement with the NAACP, what the New South is, the Reagan Administration, and teaching history properly. Part two. Mrs. Johnson details the Tuskegee Civic Association, gerrymandering, the importance of economic power, William P. Mitchell, and community involvement meetings. She also recalls the African American boycott of businesses in Tuskegee when whites refused to vouch for potential African American voters. Part three. Shots of Beulah Johnson's Tuskegee house and neighborhood. At 3:40 change to William Elwood interviewing Mayor Johnny Ford outside Tuskegee municipal building about the impact of the Voting Rights Act, Gomillion v. Lightfoot case, Fred Gray, and being mayor for 15 years. At 12:05 change to Elwood interviewing civil rights attorney Solomon S. Seay, Jr., in Montgomery about Seay's background and education, his military service experience, and watching the top Brown v. Board of Education lawyers practice the case at Howard Law School.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Mr. Green was a public school teacher in Richmond at Jefferson Huguenot Wythe High School and also pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in Saluda, Virginia. One of the most important cases in civil rights law decided by the US Supreme Court carries his name, Green v. County School Board of New Kent County. Green discusses why the case became notable, the background leading up to the case. Part two. The Green case was about the freedom of choice policy put forth by New Kent School Board. Mr. Green tells how it was not really freedom of choice because there were all kinds conditions and outcomes; for example, when the school board was forced to integrate schools, they closed all the African American schools and laid off all the African American administrators. Part three. Mr. Green tells about his childhood and then more about the Supreme Court case. In reality, Mr. Green says, schools were not integrated after Brown in 1954, but all schools had to be integrated after Green in 1968. Green was also a very significant case because the Supreme Court made the county school district pay legal fees.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist and professor Charles Gomillion attended and then taught at the Tuskegee Institute from 1928 to 1971. He talks about his year at Fisk University doing field research with Dr. Charles S. Johnson concerning Southern farmers and New Deal programs. He mentions Dr. Albion W. Small, Franklin Frazier, and Bertrand Doyle. Mr. Gomillion recounts his childhood and education in South Carolina. Part two. Mr. Gomillion discusses why he dropped out of Paine College and then why he went back. Through the Tuskegee Men's Club/Tuskegee Civic Association for community service, he became interested in voting rights. In order to register to vote, African Americans had to get white people to vouch for them in person at the courthouse, and then they had to pay back poll taxes for any years in which they didn't vote. Part three. Mr. Gomillion discusses voter registration in Macon County, Alabama and Alabama Gov. James Fulsom. He talks about the legal action regarding election practices and voter registration there, as well as the lawsuit that went to the US Supreme Court in 1960. Part four. Mr. Gomillion praises Tuskegee Veterans Hospital employees for funding the gerrymandering lawsuits of Macon County. Mr. Gomillion mentions attorney Fred Gray. Mr. Gomillion talks more about his year of field research in Mississippi for Fisk University and how dangerous it was. Part five. Mr. Gomillion talks about his interactions with white people. He believes his major contribution in life was in the enlightenment of his students.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Charles Morgan remembers Freedom Summer of 1964 and recalls hearing when Chaney, Schwerner, and Goodman were missing. Mr. Morgan says that the system of justice in the South did not work against African American individuals, it worked against all African Americans as a group. He explains how all parts of justice system work together and how public interest lawyers succeeded in changing the law on jury cases in the South. Part two. Mr. Morgan believes that you must integrate colors, creeds, cultures etc., or change and understanding will never happen. Mr. Morgan points out that there were no African American prisons in the South before the Civil War because all African Americans were imprisoned [by slavery]. The civil rights movement was a revolution in the sense that it changed the entire structure of law and altered much of American life. Voter registration wasn't the law until around 1900, and America still hasn't recovered from the fact that fewer people vote because of it. Part three. Mr. Morgan reviews the history of the impact of slavery, segregation, and population centers. Southern legislatures around 1900 were not based on population, and cities were underrepresented. Mr. Morgan talks about Baker v. Carr, Reynolds v. Sims, Gray v. Sanders. Sims was about reapportioning the Alabama state legislature, and Sanders was about reapportioning the congressional districts, where the phrase "one person, one vote" was first used. Television helped to confront all Americans with the problems of the South. Part four. Morgan quotes Congressman John Lewis, "Whatever happened to the civil rights movement? It got elected." Lewis suffered 40 arrests and multiple skull fractures. At 2:48, footage of Washington, DC.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Charles Todd Duncan discusses his involvement with the Brown v. Board of Education cases when he worked in the law office of Frank D. Reeves. He did much research on the history of African American codes. He was straight out of law school and was mainly a helper and errand-runner on the case, but he likes to remember that he was the one who personally physically filed the Brown case at the US Supreme Court. He mentions Charles Black. Mr. Duncan talks about Brown's impact, as well as what it didn't affect. Part two. Mr. Duncan helped out on the Brown case at the New York City NAACP Legal Defense Fund offices. He participated in strategy and decision-making sessions there and describes what these sessions were like. He recounts how the five Brown cases were chosen to take to the Supreme Court for very specific reasons.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Part one. Judge Collins Seitz recalls his childhood and schooling, the University of Delaware, the University of Virginia law school, and the DuPont scholarship. Part two. Mr. Seitz reports that discrimination was never discussed in law school, and separate but equal was never discussed while he was a young lawyer in Wilmington. Part three. Seitz talks about being appointed Vice Chancellor in Delaware's Court of Chancery. Important decisions he wrote in the corporate arena include the Bata Shoe case, Ringling Brothers case, and Campbell v. Loew’s. The first civil rights case he tried as judge was Parker v. University of Delaware in 1950. The case was based on the idea that separateness was inherently unequal. Part four. The per se theory, that segregation was inherently unequal, was a part of the Parker case, but Judge Seitz did not address it directly, so he decided the case on the question of whether or not school facilities were equal. Fundamental in his decision was the disparity in capital assets between the "white" University of Delaware and the "black" university known as Delaware State College, as well as terrible differences in curriculum and libraries. Seitz also comments on the Prince Edward County case in Virginia and his famous speech at a boys school in Wilmington. Part five. Seitz discusses his part in one of the five Brown v. Board of Education cases, Gebhart v. Belton, and his desire to declare separate but equal as unconstitutional in his written opinion, but he decided it was the place of the US Supreme Court to do so. He talks about the disparity between African American and white schools in Delaware, Louis Redding, and the granting of immediate relief. Part six. Seitz reviews Baker v. Carr and the Girard College case. Part seven. Different camera angles show Judge Higginbotham asking questions.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Judge Constance Baker Motley recalls her childhood and education, including her first experience with Jim Crow. The Gaines case in 1938 influenced her to become a lawyer. Clarence Blakeslee, a white philanthropist in Connecticut, paid for her law school tuition. She joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in 1945 as a clerk. She discusses the legal strategy to target southern graduate schools with enforcement of the Gaines decision. Part two. Judge Motley recalls the NAACP Legal Defense Fund campaign to address the lack of adequate graduate and professional schools for African American students in the South. She discusses the background of several higher education cases, including the 1946 Sweatt case in Texas and the Sipuel case in Oklahoma. The next step in the strategy was to bring suits in elementary and secondary education. Five of these cases culminated in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. She also reviews the immediate history of civil rights following the Brown decision. Part three. Motley describes the grassroots revolution for civil rights after the Brown decision as a surprise to the legal strategists at the NAACP. New laws on the state level reasserting discrimination were also an obstacle for Motley and her NAACP colleagues. In 1961 she represented James Meredith in his fight to enter the University of Mississippi; she also represented Charlayne Hunter Gault and Hamilton Holmes in their fights to enter the University of Georgia. She recalls the first case she ever tried in 1949 in Mississippi. Part four. The judge shares her memories of the early days of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, especially hearing stories by Thurgood Marshall about Charles Hamilton Houston and William Hastie. She heard Houston and Marshall argue the restrictive covenant cases at the US Supreme Court. During this visit to Washington DC, she and her African American comrades were not allowed to stay in DC hotels. She recalls the important cases devised or tried by Houston. Part five. Judge Motley lists the many changes since the Brown decision.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Montgomery, Alabama. At 8:00, Judge Dolores R. Boyd interview begins at her home in Montgomery. Part two. Judge Boyd offers opinions on the so-called New South, desegregation versus integration, the still-unrealized aspects of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, and accessing the civil rights movement via churches. Part three. Judge Boyd discusses her childhood role models, her school experiences, and the need for appreciation of African American culture. Part four. Ms. Boyd believes African Americans are struggling to keep what they have earned over past few decades. She says there is racism, especially because of economic disparity, and the law is critical to determining society's values. At 9:28, footage of Boyd at her office.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Donald Watkins talks about Montgomery’s challenges, like the Confederate Flag flying on the Alabama Capitol. He also covers George Wallace, the continuing fight for civil rights, the teacher accreditation exam case, and achieving parity in society via the law. He remembers an African American custodian at the University of Alabama law school, Remus Rhodes, who taught the first African American students there how to use the library and how to form study groups. Part two. Watkins continues discussing Remus Rhodes, the custodian who became mentor to the first African American students at University of Alabama law school, as well as civil rights law history. At 11:30 minutes, footage of rural road and neighborhood.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Drewary Brown talks about social and economic life in Charlottesville during the civil rights era and in 1987. Mr. Brown walks down the Mall in Charlottesville. At 12:37, interview with Florence Bryant in front of Jefferson School in Charlottesville. Ms. Bryant discusses the work of the NAACP on behalf of teachers. She mentions J. Rupert Picott, Aline Black, and Melvin Austin as instrumental in helping African American teachers get equal pay in Virginia in 1940. See also reports her involvement in desegregating schools in Charlottesville. She regards Charlottesville as a leader in desegregation.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Former White House executive and civil rights attorney Frederic Morrow contends that World War II triggered increased interest in civil rights among African Americans because they were defending a way of life that they could not enjoy. Mr. Morrow recalls his 1957 trip to Africa with Vice President Richard Nixon; he remembers African nations appointing white ambassadors to the United States because African Americans were discriminated against in the US State Department. Mr. Morrow says that President Eisenhower was a decent man, but his philosophy on race was incorrect. Mr. Morrow reviews his childhood in New Jersey, what it was like in the military during World War II, and his position as the first African American in history to be on the President's staff at the White House. Part two. Mr. Morrow tells how he became the first African American executive in the White House in the 1950s. He had to struggle and jump through many hoops to get a position there. Many top White House staffers said they would walk out if Mr. Morrow served with them. Part three. Mr. Morrow says that the civil rights struggle continues, especially on the economic side and with education. He declares, "We don't need new laws, we don't need new principles, we just have to live by them and do our duty.” Part four. Mr. Morrow recalls knowing Charles Hamilton Houston during the 1930s when he worked with NAACP. He believes that Houston was the foundation of the civil rights struggle. Mr. Morrow recounts his work as an NAACP field reporter. Part five. Mr. Morrow wrote a book called '40 Years a Guinea Pig'. He recalls civil rights supporters being critical of him because they thought he wasn't loudly advocating for civil rights while he worked at the White House. He acknowledges that he was asked to be the head of the Bank of America because their branches were being burned, and they needed an African American face to smooth things over. Mr. Morrow talks about his childhood and his grandfather, who was a slave. Part six. Mr. Morrow tells the remarkable story of how he got into Bowdoin College. He offers a message to young people.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Pictures inside and outside the Supreme Life Insurance Company in Chicago. At 11:26, Elwood interviews civil rights attorney Earl Dickerson in Dickerson's home in Chicago. Part two. Mr. Dickerson discusses his involvement with the National Lawyers Guild, the Smith Act and the Communist 11, and the Fair Employment Practices Committee. Part three. Mr. Dickerson recounts his association with the civil rights commission under President Truman. He also discusses being president of the National Bar Association. He talks about the Fair Employment Practices Committee during the early 1940s, his meetings with President Franklin Roosevelt concerning FEPC, not being invited back to serve on the FEPC, and his dealings in Birmingham as part of the FEPC. Part four. Mr. Dickerson talks more about the FEPC checking on Birmingham businesses. While president of the National Lawyers Guild during the 1950s, Mr. Dickerson had a run-in with Atty. Gen. Brownell. Mr. Dickerson also talks about knowing Charles Houston. Part five. Mr. Dickerson reminisces about Paul Robeson, W.E.B. DuBois, the March on Washington in 1963, entertaining Martin Luther King Jr. at his home when King came to Chicago, and his peacemaking lunch with Elijah Muhammed, Philip Randolph, and Malcolm X. Part six. Mr. Dickerson describes the use of covenants to restrict African Americans from moving into white neighborhoods. It was his part of the Hansberry v. Lee case to prove racially restrictive covenants were unconstitutional. He also talks about the Squib case, his ideological influences, and his favorite literature. Part seven. Mr. Dickerson recalls how he went from Mississippi to Chicago as a lawyer and his inspiration to cure the defects of society. At 10:15, photos from Dickerson's life with some commentary.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Charles Houston's physician Dr. Edward Mazique discusses the state of medical care in 1985, the problems with malpractice insurance, and his involvement with medical political action committees in lobbying Congress. He also talks about his Mississippi accent, leaving Mississippi at 17, his time at Morehouse College, and being poor. Part two. Dr. Mazique recounts how he became a physician and tell stories about Morehouse College and his early economic troubles. He mentions Howard Thurman. Part three. Dr. Mazique talks about the survival skills of African Americans. He recalls being Charles Houston's physician and friend; and Houston was his lawyer. Part four. Dr. Mazique recounts how Houston inspired him into political action. Dr. Mazique recalls the state of health care for African Americans during civil rights era; he talks about what it was like for African American physicians. He mentions Paul Robeson and Jackie Robinson. Dr. Mazique was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Houston got him excused from testifying. Part five. Mazique relates what motivated Houston and talks about Houston's death. Dr. Mazique discusses his relationship as godfather to Houston's son. Part six. Dr. Mazique talks about Houston and how people felt about him. He recalls Houston's work as a lawyer in areas other than separate but equal civil rights cases. Houston lived with Dr. Mazique in 1949 because of his health, and Dr. Mazique had him make an audiotape. Dr. Mazique recalls discussing the Scottsboro case and its international renown. Houston believed far-reaching publicity was important to the civil rights struggle.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Florence Bryant advocates the teaching of African American history. She tells about her own life. At 7:49 interview with Mr. Williams begins. Mr. Williams discusses the historical importance of the Charlottesville street on which he stands during the interview. He offers his views on public housing and his promotion of scattered housing for low income families.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist Palmer Weber asserts that there were three prongs to the attack on systemic segregation in the South: jobs, education, and suffrage. He speaks of his association with A. Philip Randolph and how Randolph set about conquering segregation in labor. He credits Charles Houston with the strategy of attacking segregation in education, via court cases. Weber talks about his election to the national board of the NAACP. He mentions the work of Mary McCleod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, and Mordecai Johnson. Part two. Mr. Weber discusses lawyer Oliver Hill, writer Nancy Cunard, Jack Graveley of the NAACP, Dr. J.M. Tinsley, and Professor Duncan Clark Hyde. Weber elaborates on his work for the Fair Employment Practices Commission. He credits World War II for advancing the NAACP's attack on the segregation system and swelling its membership. In terms of civil rights progress, the NAACP’s struggle to get the Armed Forces desegregated was as great as Charles Houston’s endeavors in education. He also says that Philip Randolph's accomplishments in labor are as important as Houston's for education; and Martin Luther King Jr. built on the work of all of these men, but transcended them by urging African American clergy to action. Weber also talks about Walter White and his rifts with Paul Robeson and W.E.B. Dubois. Part three. Mr. Weber discusses Walter White and his impact on the civil rights struggle, especially White’s study of lynchings in the South. Other people discussed are Mary McCleod Bethune, Ralph Bunche, Lucy Randolph Mason, Eleanor Roosevelt, Tom Clark, Thurgood Marshall, and Earl Warren.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Drewary Brown talks about social and economic life in Charlottesville during the civil rights era and in 1987. Mr. Brown walks down the Mall in Charlottesville. At 12:37, interview with Florence Bryant in front of Jefferson School in Charlottesville. Ms. Bryant discusses the work of the NAACP on behalf of teachers. She mentions J. Rupert Picott, Aline Black, and Melvin Austin as instrumental in helping African American teachers get equal pay in Virginia in 1940. See also reports her involvement in desegregating schools in Charlottesville. She regards Charlottesville as a leader in desegregation. Part two. Ms. Bryant advocates the teaching of African American history. She tells about her own life. At 7:49 interview with Mr. Williams begins. Mr. Williams discusses the historical importance of the Charlottesville street on which he stands during the interview. He offers his views on public housing and his promotion of scattered housing for low income families.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Charlottesville house at 407 Ridge Street. At 1:00, interview with Frances Brand in her art gallery in Charlottesville. She describes her series of paintings, called "Firsts," as a tribute to important individuals within the Charlottesville community, especially people she considered exemplars of civil rights advocacy. She remembers her subjects and their achievements. At 13:30, discussion with three Charlottesville city school board members. One, Henry Mitchell, was a part of the NAACP's 1956 lawsuit to desegregate Charlottesville schools. He describes the aftermath of the desegregation ruling and the commonwealth's policy of Massive Resistance. Part two. Three members of the Charlottesville city school board, including Grace Tinsley, Henry Mitchell, and Clifford Bennett, discuss present day (1987) problems in Charlottesville city schools, especially concerning African American student self-image. At 15:10, footage of paintings of Charlottesville notables by Frances Brand. Part three. Grace Tinsley, Henry Mitchell, and Clifford Bennett recall the history of the Charlottesville city school board and the changes in race relations over the years.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of exteriors of houses (and William Elwood) until 8:55. Then civil rights attorney Fred Gray discusses Alabama lawyers, Arthur Shores, and becaming a lawyer in order to try civil rights cases. Gray had to go to law school outside of Alabama as African American schools in Alabama didn't offer what he wanted. He taught himself Alabama state law while in Ohio. Gray describes developing strategies for his civil rights cases. He also talks about the Montgomery bus boycott. Part two. Mr. Gray recalls his 1954 defense of an African American juvenile arrested on Montgomery bus (before the Rosa Parks arrest). Gray talked to Rosa the day before she was arrested and represented her in court. Mr. Gray remarks that Montgomery bus cases like Browder v. Gayle were the first major application of Brown's meaning. Gray describes the difficulty of registering African American voters because registrars would go missing, even after the courts ordered them to register African Americans. To avoid the impact of African American voters, Alabama redrew Tuskegee boundaries to include only white people. Mr. Gray explains Tuskegee gerrymandering and Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Part three. Mr. Gray goes over details of Gomillion v. Lightfoot, recalls how Tuskegee Institute was no longer within the city of Tuskegee because of the new boundaries. Mr. Gray discusses Lee v. Macon County Board of Education, a school discrimination case that managed to include all public schooling in Alabama. Gray explains how litigating the rights of students in order to end segregation also meant dealing with the rights of teachers. Although the Alabama African American teachers associations weren't part of the original suit, they joined the case. Part four. Mr. Gray acknowledges the Bicentennial of the Constitution in 1987, and he discusses how the Constitution was not written to include African Americans. It is the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments and various civil rights acts that make the Constitution a living document for African Americans. Gray talks about the Tuskegee Civic Association and gives a lot of credit to local banker Allan Parker. Mr. Gray also covers rehearsing the Gomillion case and the immediate result of Gomillion.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist Gardner Bishop talks about meeting with Charles Hamilton Houston to get money for a lawyer to represent the Consolidated Parents Group. Houston sent a letter on the group's behalf to newspapers, then offered to take the case himself for free. Mr. Bishop talks about the case, how Houston became ill and asked James Nabrit to take over for him. Houston asked Mr. Bishop to visit him in the hospital just before he died. Mr. Bishop talks about hosting Consolidated Parents Group meetings in his basement. Part two. Mr. Bishop recalls meeting James Nabrit, who changed case to include enrolling black students in an all-white school. Mr. Bishop speaks of his amazement at the wonderful condition and facilities of the school in the white neighborhood. He also visited a school in a black neighborhood, and it was crowded and dilapidated. Mr. Bishop remembers visiting the Supreme Court to hear the Consolidated Parents Group case. He was one of the pallbearers for Houston.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist Gardner Bishop talks about his involvement with the Consolidated Parents Group. He relates that the group first met to discuss the atrocious school facilities in African American neighborhoods. At his suggestion, the group embarked on a school strike to embarrass the white school board. Mr. Bishop relates the details of the school strike saga. Part two. Mr. Bishop introduced himself to Charles Houston in order to enlist his help. Houston became the group's lawyer, ended the strike, and led the group into legal action. As the Consolidated Parents Group became organized, they needed publicity for their legal cases, and so provoked arrests by swimming in a public pool. Mr. Bishop recounts Houston's unexpected illness. Part three. Mr. Bishop tells the story of being arrested for playing with his daughter in a white playground. He describes his philosophy of life. Part four. Mr. Bishop discusses his philosophy of life. He recalls Houston asking him how "common" African Americans felt about various issues. Bishop mentions Dorothy Porter and Herbert Reid. Part five. Mr. Bishop talks about James Nabrit helming the Consolidated Parents Group case after Houston's death. Mr. Bishop recalls provoking the case by escorting an African American student to a white junior high school. He also recounts the story of advising the US Secretary of the Interior about the swimming pool case. At 19:00, we see William Elwood at the Rotunda talking to the camera, not filmed in December.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Author Genna Rae McNeil offers insight on Charles Hamilton Houston's privileged upbringing, education, and early career. Houston served in the military during World War I, and the extreme discrimination therein inspired him to make civil rights his life's mission. McNeil covers Houston's experiences during the Red Summer of 1919, at Harvard Law School, and as a lawyer at his father's firm. Part two. McNeil describes Houston's belief that lawyers were social engineers with responsibility for improving society. She tells of Houston's professorship at Howard University Law School and his work to change the school from a night school to a traditional daytime degree program. Houston became involved with the NAACP and flirted with International Labor Defense, best known for publicizing the injustice of the Scottsboro case. Part three. Ms. McNeil talks about Houston's involvement with the International Labor Defense. Houston became the first paid lawyer for the NAACP, with the charge to direct a campaign against inequality in education and transportation. Houston crafted the legal strategy used to eliminate segregation. He understood that the justice system functioned in relation to its precedents. Ms. McNeil discusses Houston's travels in the South, especially his visits to rural African American schools. Houston made films of the differences between African American schools and white schools during his trips in order to document what "separate but equal" meant in the South. Part four. Ms. McNeil recounts Houston's involvement with African American railroad firemen and his contributions to activism in the fight for equality in the military, for fair employment practices, and for District of Columbia public schools. McNeil talks about the formation of the Consolidated Parents Group. Part five. Ms. McNeil emphasizes the importance of Houston's involvement in the Consolidated Parents Group. Houston fell ill and died while working with the CPG; he made arrangements for other lawyers to continue this work. McNeil offers her appraisal of Houston's philosophy of life and his commitment to principle. She gives her theory why Houston is not better known. Part six. McNeil continues her account of Houston's accomplishments, and she conjectures why we have forgotten about him.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Mr. Rader recalls his support of public schooling in Virginia during Massive Resistance in order to sustain economic development within the commonwealth. At 5:30, interview with George R. Ferguson begins. Mr. Ferguson recounts the lawsuit brought by the Charlottesville NAACP to desegregate schools immediately following the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954. Court proceedings continued into 1958, when the judge assigned several black children to attend otherwise white schools in Charlottesville. The commonwealth then closed schools in Charlottesville under the policy of Massive Resistance. Mr. Ferguson describes how the Boatwright committee of the Virginia General Assembly harassed Charlottesville NAACP members.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. George Ferguson recalls his experiences in the aftermath of the Brown v. Board of Education decision as president of the Charlottesville NAACP, as plaintiff and witness in the local suit to admit African American students to public schools, and as a father and husband dealing with the effects of discrimination on his family. Ferguson first mentions the educational workshops in 1958 organized by the NAACP and June Shagaloff. He discusses events of 1955 when African American parents applied to have their children attend desegregated schools. His daughter Olivia and another student, John Martin, were assigned to Venable/Lane schools by Judge John Paul of the US District Court Fourth Circuit. Ferguson recounts intimidation and harassment of the NAACP by the Boatwright committee of Virginia's General Assembly through to 1960. He talks about the lawyers who represented the Charlottesville parents in their class action suit, Oliver Hill, Spotswood Robinson, and Samuel Tucker, and why the trial was held in Harrisonburg instead of Charlottesville. Part two. Mr. Ferguson tells of experiences with discrimination and harassment throughout his life and during the school desegregation case in Charlottesville. He briefly discusses race relations in 1985. On parts three and four, different camera angles.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Journalist Brandy Ayers describes the Willie Brewster murder trial, which featured the shooting of indicted killer Damon Strange by Jimmy Glenn Knight in the courthouse during the grand jury hearing. He also discusses how the jury commission worked in Alabama. Part two. Mr. Ayers calls for a new style of politics wherein all factions come together for total mobilization. He believes that the American dream is not real for African Americans.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Herbert Reid recalls his childhood in Wilson, North Carolina, and his family. He remembers hearing Charles Houston speak at his high school. His parents were involved in the formation of an NAACP chapter in Wilson, and Walter White stayed at his house when he was a little boy. He mentions Roscoe Pound's influence on Houston, but he asserts that Houston formed his own ideas of the function of the law and the social order. At Howard Law School, students and faculty called these ideas the Houstonian school of jurisprudence. Part two. Mr. Reid arrived at Howard Law School in 1947, when the whole school was immersed in preparing civil rights cases. He says that the early planning and pleadings in the Brown v. Board of Education cases involved work by both students and faculty. Mr. Reid worked on Bolling v. Sharpe with James Nabrit. He also worked on covenant cases. Mr. Reid discusses his work on Hobson v. Hansen concerning equal facilities and disparate treatment in 1967. He also mentions Powell v. McCormack. Part three. Mr. Reid talks about his student Governor Douglas Wilder and his client Mayor Marion Barry. He talks about his involvement with the Consolidated Parents Group in DC. Mr. Reid believes that enforcing equal rights helps our democracy become accepted overseas. He also states that the effects of deprivation during the separate but equal era continue to plague the African American community.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney and professor J. Clay Smith discusses the beginning of Howard University Law School and John Mercer Langston. Mr. Smith says the law school's mission was always to make the Constitution a living document. Early students didn't have a high school diploma, just a certificate of literacy. Most first African American lawyers and judges in different states were graduates of Howard. Charles Hamilton Houston taught at Howard; he himself went to Harvard Law School. Houston was known as a hard taskmaster. He was criticized for trying to Harvardize Howard, but he knew the law school had to be comparable to others. Part two. Mr. Smith recalls Houston practicing civil rights test cases in court rooms at Howard University. Both faculty and students would pose as the different Supreme Court justices trying the case the next week. Thurgood Marshall was great with people; William Hastie was a gifted writer. Mr. Smith recounts that either Houston or Marshall had to sleep in caskets in African American mortuaries while traveling around the South to assist other lawyers due to threats from the KKK. Mr. Smith contends that the scholarly community is still biased about giving credit to African American scholars. Part three. Mr. Smith talks about Houston as the architect of the modern civil rights movement. Women's liberation lawyers, even conservative lawyers, use the legal strategy designed by Houston to change law. From 3:50 to 10:40, footage of Houston and Hastie portraits. From 10:40 to end, Alvin J. Bronstein interviewed in his office. As a young lawyer Mr. Bronstein traveled south for 1964 Freedom Summer. He was sent to St. Augustine, Florida to work on a law suit that would make hotels serve African Americans. He then went to Mississippi and stayed for five years as a trial lawyer in Macomb where there had been 37 church bombings. He set up offices around the South as part of the Lawyers Constitutional Defense Committee funded by the ACLU.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Professor Jack Bass talks about Judge J. Waites Waring and his daring decisions. Mr. Bass also recalls the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals applying a broad interpretation of Brown v. Board of Education to its decisions during the civil rights era. For example, in the Montgomery bus boycott case, the Fifth Circuit Court declared that Brown had overturned Plessy v. Ferguson. Mr. Bass offers remarks concerning Judge Richard Taylor Rives, Judge John R. Brown's dissent in Gomillion v. Lightfoot, and socioeconomic changes in the South. Part two. Mr. Bass describes the African American diaspora to the North. Mr. Bass talks about Judge Frank M. Johnson and his judicial decisions reshaping the structure of society in Alabama. Mr. Bass comments on the problems faced by judges, as well as white lawyers who represented African Americans, and their families when the the judges applied equal rights and protections to minorities. He also talks about Judge John R. Brown, pre-civil rights era voter registration for African Americans, absurd voter registration rules, and intimidation of African American plaintiffs. Part three. Mr. Bass quotes Judge John R. Brown's dissent in Gomillion v. Lightfoot. Bass says that Charles Houston thought that education reform was the key to promoting civil rights in all areas. Bass continues to talk about judges of the Fifth Circuit, including Elbert Tuttle and John Minor Wisdom. In 1963 in Birmingham, Bull Connor expelled a large group of African American students a few weeks before graduation, a decision that a local judge upheld, but Judge Tuttle took immediate action to open the school to all students the next day. Judge Wisdom was instrumental in calling an end to the deliberate speed clause of the Brown decision by ruling that the only constitutional desegregation plan is one that works quickly. Wisdom also put the onus of desegregation plans on school boards and administrations instead of politicians. Part four. Mr. Bass explains that the Fifth Circuit Court defined a new kind of federalism. They incorporated into the Constitution the concept of equality found in the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Bass declares that the great heroes of the civil rights movement are the African American plaintiffs in the lawsuits. He comments on the changes in the South after Congress validated the decisions of the courts with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voter Rights Act of 1965. Mr. Bass comments on the legal struggle in South Carolina, especially noting Judge Matthew Perry and Judge Skelly Wright.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Higginbotham, A. Leon (Aloyisus Leon), 1928-1998
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney and professor Jack Greenberg talks about his involvement with the NAACP civil rights defense fund. He recalls his work on a Japanese citizen relocation rights case. He discusses important cases in civil rights law and his involvement in two of the five cases that constituted Brown v. Board of Education, the Delaware case and the Kansas case. Part two. Mr. Greenberg remarks he does not believe Southern society would be integrated if it had been left up to the states; it would be like South Africa and Apartheid. He mentions major cases litigated in Virginia, including the Davis case, the Prince Edward County case, and the NAACP v. Button case, wherein the Virginia General Assembly tried to put the NAACP out of business by making it illegal for it to function. Civil rights cases were filed purposefully in federal court because federal judges were insulated from state politics somewhat; there wasn't the problem of being reelected. Mr. Greenberg contends that the federal courts made civil rights possible. Part three. Mr. Greenberg recalls that Virginia's attempt to destroy the NAACP was really about a small group of Virginia lawyers, like Spotswood Robinson, Oliver Hill, Samuel Tucker. The NAACP Legal Defense Fund in New York relied on law school academics, legal scholars, and social scientists. Interview ends at 3:30. Footage resumes with Judge A. Leon Higginbotham being interviewed while walking around Columbia University. Mr. Higginbotham talks about Greenberg and Columbia Law School's impact on civil rights struggle
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Part one. James Duren explains how he became an activist for education in Clarendon County, South Carolina, by uncovering corruption in Clarendon School District One. He formed a parents group that grew into 200 members to fight the misuse of money by the district. Other parents describe how they became involved and actions they took to try to change the situation. Summmerton in Clarendon County, South Carolina, was the district involved in Briggs v. Elliott, one of the cases in Brown v. Board of Education. Part two. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One describe the fraud, mismanagement and extremely low educational standards of the district. Part three. Similar content to Disc 204. Part four. Clarendon County business people and parents of students in Clarendon School District One discuss race relations in South Carolina in the 1980s, as well as the many problems with Clarendon School District 1. Part five. Similar content to Disc 206.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one: Civil rights attorney James Nabrit discusses childhood and segregation in Augusta, Georgia. He covers his law practice in Texas and how he fought to have one Democratic primary instead of two (one for whites, one for African Americans). He left Texas because Mordecai Johnson wanted him to come to Howard University. There, he taught in the law school and became dean, then secretary of the university, then president. He recounts how the news of Jack Johnson’s boxing victory in Augusta, Georgia was greeted by the taunting and burning of an African American man who was celebrating. Part two. Nabrit recalls how the civil rights struggle developed and touches upon African American economic development. He details his preparation for civil rights cases. He declares that winning court cases is not the same thing as achieving civil rights victory. Part three. Nabrit talks about Charles Houston and his contributions. Houston tried cases, met with people, spoke out, organized people. Houston is the one who connected all the lawyers together. Nabrit acknowledges the contributions of the lodges, like the Elks, the Moose. Nabrit elaborates on work he did on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson, like serving at the United Nations as deputy ambassador. Nabrit explains why he worked on Oklahoma civil rights cases. Part four. Nabrit extemporizes on ways to work the legal system. Part five. Stills of photographs. Part six. Mr. Nabrit had to work every summer while in school. His father would not give him money because Nabrit chose to study law instead of becoming a preacher. He discusses his appointment to the United Nations and President Lyndon Johnson. Unidentified woman at 11:46 talks about the background of Mr. Nabrit and why Elwood interviewed him. Still photographs at 13:30, many of Nabrit with various US presidents and officials.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Chester High School band and football team, Chester, South Carolina. Part two and three. Principal Jeff Brown gives a tour of Chester High School, Chester, South Carolina. Part four. At 19:20, Mr. Brown attends a Chester Rotary Club meeting. Then more footage at high school. Part five. Footage of students at Chester High School. At 7:20, interview with Principal Jeff Brown. Mr. Brown recalls what schools were like when he began his career in education. Part six. Principal Jeff Brown recounts the early days of his education career in Chester, South Carolina. He describes the separate but equal doctrine and how the community imposed certain strictures on black teachers. He also talks about the changes brought by integration. Part eight. Interview with Principal Jeff Brown of Chester High School continues. At 8:38, footage of high school activities and students. At 14:20 interview with Mr. Brown recommences.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights activist and history professor John Hope Franklin did historical research for the Brown v. Board of Education cases. He wrote opposition papers, vetted briefs for historical accuracy, and answered history questions from the lawyers. He describes the slow development of state segregation policies and laws, the 14th amendment and schools, the political climate regarding race issues in the late 19th century, and the suppression of African American voters in the South. Part two. Mr. Franklin describes the suppression of African Americans in the South via state legislation. He talks about the elaborate disenfranchisement of African Americans using restrictions regarding real estate, literacy, voting, etc. He mentions Plessy v. Ferguson, the Oklahoma State Constitution of 1915, and the cases about election primaries during the 1920s. Part three. Mr. Franklin contends that the irregular application of Jim Crow laws allowed the system of segregation to be challenged. He says that Brown defending attorney John W. Davis, like other complacent segregationists, expected to win the Brown case because he believed that everybody accepted the naturalness and permanence of a separate society. Mr. Franklin discusses Charles Houston and his legacy. Mr. Franklin tells the story about segregation in higher education in Oklahoma. Part four. Mr. Franklin recounts his participation in the Lyman Johnson case. Franklin says that Brown was a reaffirmation of the national ideal of equality, but like the framers of the 14th amendment, the Supreme Court escaped having to enforce the ideal. Mr. Franklin tells about his experiences as a field researcher in 1934 for the Fisk University/Charles S. Johnson study of the tenancy of African American cotton farmers in Texas and Mississippi.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Morgan, Charles, 1930-2009, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Attorney Charles Morgan and US Congressman John Lewis discuss many topics, including: Alabama legally disenfranchising African Americans with voting registration requirements like the poll tax and literacy tests; Reynolds v. Sims, the one-man, one-vote case; Bull Connor; Lewis being jailed because he was with an interracial group using public transportation; Lewis being beaten in Montgomery; Freedom Rides; the voter registration drive; Brown v. Board of Education; the importance of the Christian Church, the one place where African Americans could have control; Lewis meeting Dr. King and Rev. Abernathy. Part two. Morgan and Lewis continue their conversation, agreeing that in spite of symbols like the Confederate Flag flying over the Alabama Capitol, things are better because African Americans are allowed into positions of power. They discuss the racism deeply embedded in American society, as well as the most important aspect of the civil rights movement, its law-based nonviolence. Lewis recalls his involvement in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the difficulties he had meeting with white activists like Morgan because it was against the law. Part three. Morgan and Lewis describe the 1960s civil rights movement as a family, especially on the inside, and its informal, organic progress. They say that historians ignore Charles Hamilton Houston because they are ignorant of much of history. They review Sweatt v. Painter. Part four. Morgan and Lewis remark upon Charles Houston and suggest that integration is still, in the 1980s, in the embryonic stage. Lewis reminisces about the Sears and Roebuck catalog being his wish book as a child; he wanted to buy incubator to have chickens because he used to preach to the family's chickens. The two men talk about the Voter Education Project and the vote as a tool of liberation. They say that voter registration really did work because white politicians started speaking to African Americans and, at low levels of government, African Americans were starting to get elected. Part five. The relationship between Lewis and Morgan is discussed. Footage of Lewis walking to Capitol building to cast vote, then exiting the Capitol building after vote. Footage of Congressional office building.h
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of classes at Scott's Branch High School in Clarendon County, South Carolina, and some rural housing. At 13:41, Journalist John Norton, an education reporter for a Southern newspaper, talks about how Clarendon County has changed, as well as how it hasn't, since the Briggs v. Elliott case. Part two. Norton recounts some of the history of the school districts in Clarendon County, South Carolina. He outlines how the schools have been neglected, and therefore how the whole community is failing. Part three. Norton describes the education situation in Clarendon County, South Carolina. At 7:18, footage of Clarendon County, South Carolina, including rural roads, Liberty Hill Church, cotton gin.
- Date:
- 2006
- Summary:
- Part one. Footage of Summerton, Clarendon County, South Carolina, the origin of the Briggs v. Elliott case, which was part of Brown v. Board of Education. At 5:10, interview with Clarendon School District One Superintendent Joseph C. Watson begins. Mr. Watson describes how the Summerton school district is not yet integrated, as it consists of only African American students despite the fact that the community is 40% white. He explains why he thinks the school district is so bad and defends the school's poor performance. Part two. Watson continues to explain the policies of the district school board, especially concerning budget restrictions. He reflects on his performance as superintendent. At 8:07, footage of Clarendon School District One.
- Date:
- 2006
- Main contributors:
- Elwood, William A, Kulish, Mykola
- Summary:
- Part one. Civil rights attorney Joseph Rauh talks about his clerkships to the US Supreme Court for both Justices Cardozo and Frankfurter. He discusses the 1941 Executive Order by President Franklin Roosevelt, called the Fair Employment Act, which Rauh wrote. During World War II, he worked as Gen. MacArthur's secretary and in the Lend-Lease Administration. He recalls the founding of the Americans for Democratic Action in 1947. He tells anecdotes about working with A. Philip Randolph. Part two. Mr. Rauh remembers, during the 1940s, African Americans and whites could not eat together in a restaurant in Washington DC. The District was a segregated city until the Supreme Court ruled otherwise. Mr. Rauh talks about his acquaintance with Charles Hamilton Houston. Mr. Rauh describes Houston's work in the Steele case. He explains the new civil rights platform adopted at the 1948 Democratic Convention. Part three. Mr. Rauh comments on President Truman's civil rights record. He states that the best US President for civil rights is Lyndon Johnson and the worst is Ronald Reagan. Mr. Rauh credits Charles Houston with the first use of the argument of state action in discrimination cases. He recounts his dealings with NAACP lobbyist Clarence Mitchell, especially their efforts in passing the Civil Rights Act of 1957. Mr. Rauh recalls President John Kennedy, when proposing what would become the Civil Rights Act of 1964, pointing out the irony that Alabama Sheriff Bull Connor did more for civil rights than anybody else. Mr. Rauh tell stories about civil rights champion President Johnson working to pass legislation. Part four. Mr. Rauh describes the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its effects on the nation's history using the example of the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination to the Supreme Court in 1987 primarily by Senators elected by African American constituents from the South. The first meaningful civil rights legislation since Reconstruction was the Act of 1964. Mr. Rauh suggests reasons for why Charles Houston is not well known.
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