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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
13Americans have suffered disproportionately during the COVID-19
14pandemic; and
 
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;
19and
 
20    WHEREAS, In 1934, Dr. Roland B. Scott was the first
21African-American to pass the pediatric board exam; he was a
22faculty member at Howard University and established its center

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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1public health crisis, a very real threat to the health of their
2patients, families and communities; in an open letter, 36
3organizations committed to improving health equity across the
4city; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In addition to supporting programs that help
6people of color find healthcare jobs, each organization is
7pledging to provide anti-racism training for staff and create
8new policies that promote equity; and
 
9    WHEREAS, The group, which collectively treats more than 8
10million patients, includes large Chicago-based hospital chains
11like Rush, safety nets like Loretto Hospital that treat large
12numbers of low-income patients, and a number of
13government-funded clinics like Esperanza Health Centers; and
 
14    WHEREAS, It is time for our State to collectively address
15this racial discrimination throughout the medical profession,
16past and present, to improve the quality of life for all;
17therefore, be it
 
18    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
19HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
20we urge all branches of the medical profession to commit to
21eliminating racism and recognizing biases; and be it further
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, That we urge all colleges and medical
2institutions that prepare students for careers in the medical
3profession to focus on the recruitment of more minorities; and
4be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That we urge the State Board of Higher Education
6to pursue and provide more scholarships opportunities for
7minority applicants seeking to enter all aspects of the
8medical profession; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
10presented to all members of the Illinois General Assembly, the
11Governor of Illinois, the State Board of Higher Education, all
12medical schools in Illinois, all hospitals in Illinois, all
13clinics in Illinois, all public libraries in Illinois, and the
14Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, with the hope
15that they distribute a copy to all seeking licensure or
16re-licensure for any medical-related field.