title: Black physicians and the struggle for civil rights: lessons from the Mississippi experience: part 1: the forces for and against change.
abstract: The roles of black physicians in the South in the period leading up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 have not been fully disclosed. In Mississippi and elsewhere in the South, it is a story of disenfranchised professionals who risked life, limb, and personal success to improve the lot of those they served. This first of 2 articles on the subject provides an overview of the forces for and against the struggle for civil rights and social justice in medicine in the South. We use newly available data from Mississippi as a prime example. An understanding of these forces is essential to an understanding of medical education and medical practice in this period and helps explain why the South remains in last place in most indicators of health today.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson; Department of Pediatrics, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson. Electronic address: rdeshazo@umc.edu.
authors.forename: Richard D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: deShazo
authors.affiliation: Central Mississippi Health Services, Jackson.
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson.
authors.forename: Leigh Baldwin
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: Skipworth
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D002961:Civil Rights / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D008922:Mississippi; D010820:Physicians / Q000266:history* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000600:supply & distribution; D063505:Racism / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000266:history / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D012935:Social Justice
keywords: Black physicians; Freedom Summer; Jim Crow medicine