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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The American field of medicine has long been
3predominantly white, and systemic racism and discrimination
4have driven health disparities along racial lines; implicit
5bias has had an impact on the quality of provider services,
6while living in poverty has limited access to healthy food and
7preventive care; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Currently, Black patients experience worse health
9outcomes and higher rates of conditions like hypertension and
10diabetes; Black babies in the U.S. are up to three times more
11likely to die in the days and weeks following their births
12compared to white babies; Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans
13have suffered disproportionately during the COVID-19 pandemic;
14and
 
15    WHEREAS, The racist past of the medical profession has had
16a devastating effect on the lives and careers of Black
17Americans, both for those seeking care from the medical
18profession and for those serving in the medical profession; and
 
19    WHEREAS, In 1934, Dr. Roland B. Scott was the first
20African-American to pass the pediatric board exam; he was a
21faculty member at Howard University and established its center
22for the study of sickle cell disease; he gained national

 

 

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1acclaim for his research on the blood disorder; and
 
2    WHEREAS, When Dr. Scott applied for membership with the
3American Academy of Pediatrics with its one criteria for
4admission being board certification, he was rejected multiple
5times beginning in 1939; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Dr. Scott was eventually accepted along with his
7Howard professor, Dr. Alonzo deGrate Smith, another Black
8pediatrician; they were only allowed to join for educational
9purposes and were not permitted to attend meetings in the
10South, ostensibly for their safety; and
 
11    WHEREAS, More than a half-century later, the American
12Academy of Pediatrics has formally apologized for its racist
13actions, including its initial rejections of Drs. Scott and
14Smith on the basis of their race; the group also changed its
15bylaws to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race,
16religion, sexual orientation or gender identity; they
17acknowledged that the apology was long overdue and was prompted
18by the example of another organization that confronted its
19racist past, the American Medical Association; and
 
20    WHEREAS, Few medical organizations have confronted the
21roles they played in blocking opportunities for Black
22advancement in the medical profession until the formal

 

 

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1apologies by the American Medical Association and, more
2recently, the American Academy of Pediatrics; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The A.M.A. issued an apology in 2008 for its more
4than century-long history of discriminating against
5African-American physicians; for decades, the organization
6predicated its membership on joining a local or state medical
7society, many of which excluded Black physicians, especially in
8the South; the A.M.A.'s apology came in the wake of a paper
9published in the Journal of the American Medical Association
10that examined a number of discriminatory aspects of the group's
11history, including its efforts to close African-American
12medical schools; and
 
13    WHEREAS, For some Black physicians, exclusion from the
14A.M.A. meant the loss of career advancement opportunities;
15others struggled to gain access to the postgraduate training
16they needed for certification in certain medical specialties;
17as a result, many Black physicians were limited to becoming
18general practitioners, especially in the South; some
19facilities also required A.M.A. membership for admitting
20privileges to hospitals; and
 
21    WHEREAS, By 1964, the A.M.A. changed its position and
22refused to certify medical societies that discriminated on the
23basis of race, but persistent segregation in local groups still

 

 

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1limited Black physicians' access to certain hospitals, as well
2as opportunities for specialty training and certification; and
 
3    WHEREAS, The A.M.A. also played a role in limiting medical
4educational opportunities available to Black physicians; in
5the early 20th century, before the medical field held the same
6prestige it does today, the A.M.A. commissioned a report
7assessing the country's medical schools for their rigor; the
8report deemed much of the country's medical education system
9substandard; it also recommended closing all but two of the
10country's seven Black medical schools; as the field became more
11exclusive, it also became more white; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Between its restrictions on medical education and
13its exclusionary membership, the A.M.A. played a role in
14cultivating the profession's homogeneity, which it
15acknowledged in its 2008 statement; it has since appointed a
16chief health equity officer and established a center for health
17equity; and
 
18    WHEREAS, In an effort to address this history of racial
19discrimination and biases in the medical profession, Chicago's
20largest hospitals and clinics have officially named racism a
21public health crisis, a very real threat to the health of their
22patients, families and communities; in an open letter, 36
23organizations committed to improving health equity across the

 

 

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1city; and
 
2    WHEREAS, In addition to supporting programs that help
3people of color find healthcare jobs, each organization is
4pledging to provide anti-racism training for staff and create
5new policies that promote equity; and
 
6    WHEREAS, The group, which collectively treats more than 8
7million patients, includes large Chicago-based hospital chains
8like Rush, safety nets like Loretto Hospital that treat large
9numbers of low-income patients, and a number of
10government-funded clinics like Esperanza Health Centers; and
 
11    WHEREAS, It is time for our State to collectively address
12this racial discrimination throughout the medical profession,
13past and present, to improve the quality of life for all;
14therefore, be it
 
15    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
16HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
17we urge all branches of the medical profession to commit to
18eliminating racism and recognizing biases; and be it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That we urge all colleges and medical
20institutions that prepare students for careers in the medical
21profession to focus on the recruitment of more minorities; and

 

 

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1be it further
 
2    RESOLVED, That we urge the State Board of Higher Education
3to pursue and provide more scholarships opportunities for
4minority applicants seeking to enter all aspects of the medical
5profession; and be it further
 
6    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
7presented to all members of the Illinois General Assembly, the
8office of the Governor, the State Board of Higher Education,
9all medical schools in Illinois, all hospitals in Illinois, all
10clinics in Illinois, all public libraries in Illinois, and the
11Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, with the hope
12that they distribute a copy to all seeking licensure or
13re-licensure for any medical-related field.