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I was pleased to read the news about the new Xavier-Ochsner College of Medicine. As your article noted, diversity in the medical field helps hold our systems accountable to equitable care for all community members — a goal that statistics show is still illusory for many patients of color.
I feel it is important to also put this announcement in the larger historical context of local work to pursue equity. It is both ancient history and disturbingly recent that most Black residents had no access to professionally trained health care at all in Louisiana, when segregation was the law of the land.
In 1932, civic activist (and Longue Vue founder) Edgar Stern joined thousands of New Orleanians in celebrating the opening of Flint-Goodridge Hospital in Central City. Flint-Goodridge was established as the teaching hospital of Dillard University: Stern helped raise the funds and secure the land for both institutions.
Prior to this work, an ever deeper history in historically Black schools (the modern Dillard represented a merger between the older Straight College and New Orleans University) and in training for Black nurses existed through the strenuous efforts of African American residents, despite every obstacle segregated society could place in their way.
Stern attended the inauguration of William Nelson, Dillard University’s first president, in 1936 (and of Dillard’s longest-standing president, Albert Dent, in 1941). Over the weekend, Rochelle Ford was officially inaugurated as Dillard’s eighth president. As a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion and a passionate student of history, Ford has set a course to join the push for equity in our community.
Ford’s appointment and Xavier and Ochsner’s recent announcement connect important historical dots, reminding us how far we have come — and how far we still have to go to achieve true equity.
BATY LANDIS
executive director, Longue Vue
New Orleans
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