Los Angeles, CA — In a significant gesture of support, the National Office of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) has passed a resolution advocating a “new model of health care service delivery in South Los Angeles in which the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science plays an anchor role,” while calling for the re-establishment of a comprehensive teaching hospital in South Los Angeles.

Citing “the lack of vision and the poor management by the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services under the direction of the Board of Supervisors,”  the resolution states that the now named MLK-Harbor Hospital was reduced from over 500 beds to fewer than 50 beds and declared to be no longer a teaching hospital and that “…the arbitrary actions of Los Angeles County have thereby eliminated over 40% of physician residency training slots sponsored by the minority medical schools in the United States.”

The resolution further encourages  “… the United States Congress to determine that Charles Drew University is an Historically Black College and University (HBCU)” and asked that the University “ … be resourced to expand its capacity to educate and train health care professionals to serve in disadvantaged areas.”

Charles Drew University President Dr. Susan Kelly stated, “To everyone involved with our University, this resolution — a true validation of our mission — from such a preeminent organization as the SCLC is a genuine source of pride. The powerful voice of the SCLC continues to make itself heard on behalf of hundreds of thousands of poor and disenfranchised, whose limited access to quality health care is often life threatening. This is an issue our University is dedicated to change through our educating and training of health care professionals for chronically underserved communities such as South Los Angeles. It’s difficult to find words that adequately express how much this support from the SCLC means to Charles Drew University.”

The SCLC is a nonprofit, non-sectarian, inter-faith advocacy organization that is committed to non-violent action to achieve social, economic, and political justice. In the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the SCLC is committed to bring about the promise of “one nation, under God, indivisible” together with the commitment to activate the “strength of love” within the community of humankind. Its organizational focus is to promote spiritual principles within our membership and local communities; to educate youth and adults in the areas of personal responsibility, leadership potential, and community service; to ensure economic justice and civil rights in the areas of discrimination and affirmative action; and to eradicate environmental classism and racism wherever it exists.

The Charles Drew University is the only academic health sciences center in an area of 1.7 million people—the largest urban underserved area in the United States. The university is also the only dually designated Historically Black Graduate Institution and Hispanic Serving Health Professions School in the nation.  It was created from the ashes of the Watts Rebellion in 1965.  Since 1971, The Charles Drew University has graduated over 500 medical doctors, 2,500 specialist physicians, 2,000 physician assistants and hundreds of other, mainly minority, health professionals. Research shows that the vast majority of these professionals are still serving the people in greatest need a decade or more after graduation.