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SPEAKER_01: It's quick, I promise. You can also find the link in the episode notes. Thank you so much for taking the time. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month, we're talking about women who've made important contributions to the world of health and wellness. Today, we're talking about a woman who fought against skeptics throughout her career in order to shed light on some of today's most crucial health crises. Her research and dedication to public health was questioned at almost every turn, especially regarding her support of sex ed curricula, which are still taught in schools across the country. Please welcome the United States' 15th Surgeon General, Joycelyn Elders. Joycelyn was born Minnie Lees Jones in Shawl, Arkansas, on August 13, 1933. She was the eldest of eight children. Joycelyn, her siblings, and her parents worked as sharecroppers in a poor, segregated, and rural region. According to her autobiography, Joycelyn's mom taught her how to read and write, so by the age of five, Joycelyn could attend school. When she was 15 years old, Joycelyn graduated as valedictorian from Howard County Training School. Then, with a scholarship from the United Methodist Church, she enrolled at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, an all-black school. The bus fare from Shawl to Little Rock was too much for her family to afford, about $4. So she and her siblings picked cotton and performed extra chores to raise enough money. In college, Joycelyn quickly fell in love with her biology and chemistry classes. She joined Delta Sigma Theta, an organization of college women committed to public service in the black community, and she was studying to become a lab technician. That is, until she attended a talk sponsored by her sorority. The talk featured Dr. Edith Irby-Jones. Dr. Jones, a medical doctor, was the first African-American woman to attend the University of Arkansas Medical School. Before meeting Dr. Jones, Joycelyn hadn't met a doctor, and certainly hadn't met a black woman doctor. After hearing the speech, Joycelyn was inspired to pursue a new dream, becoming a doctor. In 1953, Joycelyn enlisted in the Army and trained in physical therapy. She treated people who were wounded in the Korean War, and even worked as part of the physical therapy team for former President Dwight Eisenhower after he had a heart attack. Three years after enlisting, Joycelyn was discharged. She used the GI Bill to enroll at the University of Arkansas Medical School, the same school Dr. Jones attended. There, Joycelyn began her career as a doctor. By this point, separate but equal education had been deemed unconstitutional, but in reality, segregation was still in place around the country. In fact, not far from the university was the Little Rock Central High School, where nine black teenagers famously desegregated the school. Meanwhile, in medical school, Joycelyn had to eat in a separate dining room with the few other black medical students in her class and the school's cleaning staff. During those years, Joycelyn also used her physical therapy experience to perform examinations for the local high school basketball team. There, she met the team's coach, Oliver Elders. They were married in 1960. After an internship in Minnesota, Joycelyn returned to the University of Arkansas for her residency and became chief resident. She was in charge of the all-white, all-male residence and interns. Over the course of the next 15 years, Joycelyn received her master's degree in biochemistry and became a professor of pediatrics at the school. In 1978, she became the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology. Joycelyn dedicated the rest of her career to researching endocrine issues in children and understanding the societal consequences of those conditions. She also worked extensively with juvenile diabetes. Treating her patients got her interested in sex education. She realized that young women with diabetes faced increased health risks in pregnancy. As a result, she directly engaged in advocacy work around sex ed and enabling those women to control their own fertility. In 1987, then-governor Bill Clinton appointed Joycelyn to head the Arkansas Department of Health, where she continued to campaign for expanded sex education and more public health support. Her work drew criticism from conservatives, but in 1989, Arkansas introduced mandatory K-12 curricula, including sex education, substance abuse prevention, and programs to promote self-esteem. While in office, Joycelyn saw prenatal and at-home care options expand and childhood immunizations nearly double. In 1993, President Clinton once again called upon Joycelyn to fill a major health office, this time as U.S. Surgeon General, making her the first African-American Surgeon General in the U.S. Joycelyn was met with robust opposition in this new role as well. She took controversial stances on topics like the legalization of drugs and advocating for sex education. She also advocated for the pro-choice movement, universal healthcare, and better access to safe forms of abortion. And just to remind everyone, she kept a condom tree on her desk. On World AIDS Day, December 1st, 1994, Joycelyn appeared as part of a United Nations panel discussion on destigmatizing sex and sexual education as a method of combating the AIDS epidemic. During the discussion, Joycelyn said children should learn about masturbation as a normal part of human sexuality. To address your specific question
SPEAKER_00: in regard to masturbation, I think that that is something that, it's a part of human life. It's a part of human sexuality, and it is a part of something that perhaps should be taught, but we've not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel that we have tried ignorance for a very long time, and it's time we try education.
SPEAKER_01: This caused an uproar in the media. A week after the conference, the White House chief of staff and later President Clinton himself asked Joycelyn to step down from her position. Joycelyn resigned in December of 1994 after having served for 15 months. After that, she returned to the University of Arkansas as a researcher and professor. She also wrote an autobiography in 1996. Joycelyn retired from medical practice in 1999, but she hasn't stopped working to support causes she believes in. Joycelyn became a spokesperson for changing the face of medicine, advocating for racial equality in the field. In that role, she toured schools to show young kids, especially young black kids, that a career in medicine is possible, something she had learned thanks to Dr. Jones so many decades earlier. In 2020, at the age of 86, Joycelyn led a project to help track the health of people who voted in person in Wisconsin as the coronavirus outbreak swelled. Her legacy lives on at the University of Minnesota Medical School, which established the Joycelyn Elders Chair in Sexual Health Education. It aims to create a lifelong sexual education curriculum to increase the number of health providers trained in sexual health care. Today, Joycelyn is professor emerita at the University of Arkansas Medical College, still advocating and speaking out about what she believes in.
SPEAKER_08: All month, we're highlighting women who've changed the landscape of health and wellness.
SPEAKER_01: For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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SPEAKER_07: Live Nation presents Depeche Mode Live. The Memento Mori World Tour is coming to a city near you this fall. Reception to the Memento Mori Tour has been overwhelming with shows selling out across Europe and North America with over two million tickets sold. Going coast to coast, starting September 29th in Austin and concluding with four nights in Los Angeles this December Don't miss the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Class of 2020 inductees. On tour now. Depeche Mode on the Memento Mori World Tour. For cities and ticket information, head to LiveNation.com.
