AMA to apologize to Black doctors for racist past

American Medical Association (AMA) is expected to issue an apology to Black and African American doctors for past practices of discrimination and exclusionism. Blacks and African American doctors eventually founded the National Medical Association (NMA).

Founded in 1895, the National Medical Association (NMA) was formed because the American Medical Association (AMA) refused to admit Blacks or African Americans doctors. The National Medical Association is the oldest and largest organization exclusively serving African American physicians and Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.). NMA members pay $445 in annual dues and work in a variety of work settings including universities, private practice, hospitals, clinics, government and the military. The challenges physicians are facing today are staggering. With the resurgence of old diseases and the resistance of newer ones, these physicians are in constant need of the most up-to-date medical related news and products.

As recent as 1968, the AMA defended the right of state and local societies to refuse membership to Blacks and African-American doctors, which not only denied them access to the national organization but in some Southern states restricted their ability to practice. The association was also a supporter of the racist Medical Association of South Africa in international medical organizations, even though that group backed racial separation in that country until 1989.

There has been plenty of heated debate at the annual meetings of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates. The House of Delegate is the principal policy-making body of the American Medical Association. They vote on issues as diverse as assisted suicide and gun control and health care reform set policy for the society’s members.

The first black president of the prestigious but troubled association was Dr. Lonnie R. Bristow, a New York native. Dr. Lonnie Robert Bristow was born in New York on April 6, 1930, and grew up in Harlem. His father, Lonnie H. Bristow, is a retired Baptist minister, and his mother, Vivian, is a former nurse at Sydenham Hospital. He often traces his interest in medicine to his exposure to Sydenham’s emergency room, where he saw doctors of all races when he went to meet his mother for the walk home.

Despite the organization’s history as a straggler in promoting racial diversity, Dr. Bristow’s role seems in retrospect was inevitable. He became an alternate delegate to the association in 1978, a full delegate the next year, the first black member of the Board of Trustees in 1985 and the first black chairman of the Board in 1993. He spent nearly half of last year on association business, receiving $278,000 in compensation. Dr. Bristow’s popularity stems in part from his record as a consummate organization man. He was known to brush off criticism that the 161-year-old society has been notoriously behind the times on race and many other issues with a retort that its shortcomings are "simply a reflection of America."

It is good that the AMA has finally come to the realization of the sins they inherited from their forefathers. However, it is my hopes that the AMA will not only recognized their racist past but will take corrective actions to eradicate remnants of racism that still lingers around the association.