CDU: The Journey
About CDU
The journey of Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science to
become the medical education institution it is today began in the
1950’s.With every step our forefathers and leaders took, they
confronted the inevitable wall of wide-scale racial discrimination
determined to stop African-Americans from gaining the education that
was their Constitutional right as citizens of the United States of
America.
The Charles Drew
Medical Society (an affiliate of the National Medical Association),
since its inception in the early 1950s, had been working on the
creation of a teaching hospital along with a medical school in the
Watts-Willowbrook area of South Los Angeles. The Society began to
partner with community leaders to advise this collaborative arrangement
to better serve this urban and poverty-stricken community that also
lacked even the most minimal medical services. The citizens of South
Los Angeles confronted and fought the same battles that were being
fought in the deep South. Racial discrimination and civil tension
extended all the way to the far west end of the nation.
African-Americans in California lived through the same hatred, biases,
racial discrimination, indignities and poverty as our brothers and
sisters from the South.
1960 TO 1963: EDUCATION ADVOCATES AND COMMUNITY LEADERS PUSH HARD FOR A MEDICAL UNIVERSITY IN SOUTH LOS ANGELES
In the early 1960’s, the city of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County
were in constant disputes over which political jurisdiction would have
access to the State and Federal health care funding with little effort
being made to understand South Los Angeles residents who would receive
any health care services. Historical documents and newspaper articles1
confirm that community leaders conducted meetings beginning in the
mid-1950’s through 1963 to determine the economic and social costs of
not having adequate medical services, a teaching hospital, and a health
professions-focused university.
Residents
of South Los Angeles typically took all day (using the inadequate
metropolitan bus transportation system) to reach those few hospitals
county-wide that would admit lower-income patients; and as a
consequence, social unrest began due to that significant lack of and
access to health care options within South Los Angeles in general and
within the Watts-Willowbrook area in particular.
University
records demonstrate a concentrated effort from 1960 to 1963 by
concerned residents demanding their concerns be addressed:
* The Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) of Fremont High School formed a
citizens advisory committee in early 1960 that would meet weekly at the
Nola Carter Senior Citizens Center to determine community-wide
strategies to address health care disparities.
* Concerned health
care professionals then joined with the citizen’s advisory committee to
create the Health Care Planning Council (HCPC) would meet monthly from
1961 to 1963 at the Tucker Brothers Building to discuss specific
approaches to advance plans and recommendations for having a training
hospital with a supporting medical school as well as conducting a
feasibility study for its establishment in mid-1961.
* Concerned local, state and federal elected officials also joined with
the Health Care Planning Council from 1962-63 to develop a Health Care
Campaign while meeting at the Avalon Carver Center beginning early in
1962, and collectively these community leaders, health professionals,
and locally elected officials made repeated presentations to local and
state government officials stressing the importance of addressing those
needs in an urgent manner. Area elected officials most involved in
those discussions included U.S. Congressman Augustus Hawkins, State
Assemblymen Mervyn Dymally and Leon Ralph, Los Angeles Supervisor
Kenneth Hahn, Los Angeles City Councilmen Gilbert Lindsay and John C.
Gipson, and others.
GAINING MOMENTUM
Because
of the monumental groundwork laid out in the early 1960’s by two great
American legislators, Augustus Hawkins and Mervyn M.Dymally, the
Charles Drew University is what it is today—the only dually designated
Historically Black Graduate Institution and Hispanic Serving Health
Professions School in the U.S. There is no other Historically Black
Graduate Institution west of the Mississippi than the Charles Drew
University.
Congressman Augustus Hawkins
Augustus
Hawkins devoted 28 years to the California State Assembly (14 terms)
and 28 years in Congress (14 terms). Dr. Hawkins, a civil rights
champion, was among the first to give the University some of the
infrastructure necessary to build the University’s foundation to what
it is today. Some of his early achievements that were instrumental to
the formation of our Institution include:
* In 1963 to 1964, Hawkins introduced several bills, including an
Amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (H.R. 6336), to deny federal
funding to institutions practicing racial discrimination (H.R. 6328),
to provide penalties of unlawful official violence (H.R. 6334), and
other actions, to correct the injustices within South Los Angeles and
in similar communities around the nation. For decades thereafter, he
continued to improve upon the conditions of the underserved; and yet he
was unable to persuade others at that time to establish a medical
school in South Los Angeles until 1966.
California State Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally
Elected in 1962, and during his first term, Mervyn M. Dymally
introduced two bills to create the foundation of what is now known as
Charles Drew University: [1] The StudyThe Study of the Experimental
College (HR 96); and [2] The Study of the Master Plan of Higher
Education (HR 112) in which no action was taken by the California State
Assembly.
Other bills introduced by Dymally, in which the legislature took no
action because of the racial discrimination rampant of the time, were
included in his legislative requests for the Study of Employment
Opportunities and Economic Problems (HR 197); Study of Human Rights
(HR328); Study of Discriminatory Practices in Housing (HR 122); Study
of Grand Jury Discrimination (HR 266); and the Study of Racial
Discrimination (HR 245).
Even though he was unable to persuade others to establish a medical
school in South Los Angeles until 1966, Dr. Dymally never wavered in
his dedication and persevered with his constant pursuit to improve the
conditions in South Los Angeles. He continued on for decades as a State
Senator, Lt. Governor, and U.S. Congressman; and now once again, a
State Assemblyman. He has been a true warrior for human and civil
rights.
BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS AND GLORY
In 1966, the Charles Drew University was finally born after the Watts
Rebellion in August of 1965. Out of the ashes of what was once called
the Los Angeles Riots which killed 34 people and injured over 1,000
others and caused extensive property damage, the McCone Commission was
established. In August of 1965, Governor Edmund G. Brown appointed a
special Blue Ribbon Commission to investigate the reasons for this
rebellion. The Commission took the recommendations based on
presentations of community leaders, the NMA, LACMA, the Charles Drew
Medical Society, and various community leaders. Unfortunately, it took
civil unrest in South Los Angeles and in many other cities around the
nation due to racial discrimination, for President Lyndon Johnson to
sign into law the Civil Rights Act of 1965.
Had it not been for the all of the racial discrimination blockage, the
University would have been established as early as 1962 when
Legislators Augustus Hawkins and Mervyn Dymally began their quest for a
medical university in South Los Angeles. In our view, it was not the
intention of the 1965 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Higher Education
Act to prevent those who were making reasonable progress from being
designated as a Historically Black College and University (HBCU).
Even in 1967, after the Charles Drew University was finally allowed to
launch in 1966, newspaper articles2 still demonstrated that for the
University the battle against racial biases was to be a continuing
challenge…like a predator determines to bring down its prey no matter
what it takes it or who it hurts. Still the University prevails
fighting every inch of the way – a battle that is still being fought
today only on a different level and the predator is masked with
unreasonable and unjustified bureaucracy. Indeed, a high price was
paid, but 42 years later, the University continues to serve the largest
underserved urban area in the nation.
THE CURRENT STATE OF THE UNIVERSITY
In 2008, we look forward to:
- First enrollments in the new Mervyn M. Dymally School of Nursing
- The first Charles Drew University Ambulatory Care Clinic, in the Kenneth Hahn Plaza
- Expansion of the two-year medical school to a new four-year medical school
- Expansion of Translational Research that is focused on reducing health disparities among minority and poorer communities
- New Life Sciences Research and Nursing Education Building
- Growth of our successful children’s pipeline programs such as Saturday Science Academy
-
More University programs that aid international communities in
establishing healthcare programs and systems—like the most recent one
in Rwanda
The Charles Drew University is seeking recognition as a Historically
Black College and University (HBCU) and have applied for such
designation with the U.S. Department of Education. We are hoping for
same Congressional support in the magnitude of our father advocates,
Augustus Hawkins and Mervyn Dymally.
The California State Legislature reviewed our supporting facts that
would qualify the University as an HBCU and unanimously showed its
bipartisan support in the State Assembly (69-0) and State Senate (38-0)
urging the federal Department of Education and the U.S. Congress to
take the necessary steps to designate the Charles Drew University’s
undergraduate program as an HBCU. Governor Schwarzenegger then endorsed
the University’s designation efforts to become an HBCU. Further, after
reviewing the documentation, among others, the national committee of
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (founded by Rev. Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.) also endorsed this action. In addition, we
received a letter from President of Alabama A&M who is also the
President of the National Association for Equal Opportunity (NAFEO);
and received an endorsement from the Association of Minority Health
Professions Schools (AMHPS). The University has received several
affidavits from the community, health, education and political leaders
of that time who toiled, sweat, and bled to have this institution be
established. An HBCU designation would be an honor to Charles Drew
University acknowledging those whose constant pursuits finally resulted
in building a medical University in South Los Angeles. Fighting racial
discrimination battles like everyone else did in the 1950’s and 1960s
created this fine forward-looking University.
THE FUTURE: DELIVERING ON THE PROMISE
Historical perspective at the Charles Drew University honors the
past while acknowledging the community is changing, we continue to
celebrate African Americans and their great contributions to this
institution. The journey into the future will continue to require
sacrifice, patience and courage as we forge together to a new future
that will deliver on the promise…the University mission. In the words
of Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a dream that my four little children
will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the
color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
African Americans of South Los Angeles created a unique multicultural
university with great potential and its doors are open to all who
believe that a quality health education can make a difference in
patient care and service those most challenged.
We
celebrate today, those who have picked up the momentum of all these
past community leaders and who have now pulled together to build a new
building, a new nursing program, and start to create a new 4-year
medical school. All of these initiatives and more leverage the
University for its future, and part of that future is a vision to
implement the master plan of expansion of the campus.
In eight years time, at the 50th anniversary of the Watts Rebellion, we want to see, among other facilities:
- A Dental School
- A Pharmacy School
- Student Union and Amenities
- Expanded research facilities
- Increased teaching space
- A Non-Violent Conflict Reconciliation Center
And, we would like to be celebrating our eight year anniversary as an HBCU designated institution.
[1] Lindsay Seeks to Block Health Units Merger, Los Angeles Times, 11/8/1963
City Would Sell Centers to County, Los Angeles Times, 1/2/1964
Health Dept. Confusion Thickens, 2/4/1964
Supervisor’s Double-Cross on Health Depts. Charged, Los Angeles Times, 2/19/1964
County OKs Health Funds for 2 Cities, Los Angeles Times, 2/26/1964
[2] Political Fighting Slows Up Health Programs, Los Angeles Times, 7/19/1967
