Former AMA President, Dr. J. Edward Hill, Jr., of Tupelo, Mississippi
Played a Key Role in the Denial of Malpractice Insurance Coverage of Several Black
Physicians Because of the Discriminatory Policies of Tort Reform in Mississippi.
Click to view Al Jazeera English video of Tchula, Mississippi,
one of the poorest towns in the Mississippi Delta, America's
most economically depressed geographical region.
Former AMA President, Dr. J. Edward Hill, while serving as a Board Member of the Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi (MACM), an all white physician owned and operated medical malpractice insurance company, denied the renewal of malpractice insurance coverage of African-American Baptist medical missionary and Family Practicioner, Rev. Ronald V. Myers, Sr., M.D., leading to the closure of the Myers Foundation Christian Family Health Center of Tchula. Rev., Dr. Myers, the first ordained and commissioned medical missionary to the Mississippi Delta in the history of the African-American church in America, never had a medical malpractice suit during his over 16 years of service in Tchula. Dr. Myers considers his situation the worse case of "reverse tort reform" in American history.
PHYSICIANS DIVIDED
Dr. W. Montague Cobb,
president of the National
Medical Association in
the 1960s.
Courtesy of Howard University
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Dr. W. Montague Cobb,
left, in the 1960s,
teaching anatomical
comparison.
Courtesy of Howard University
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Albany High School junior
Elmeisha Sturdivant, 16, says
she would be more comfortable
dealing with a black doctor.
(Paul Buckowski / Times Union)
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Union College professor Robert
B. Baker is co-author of a
recent study on racial
discrimination in the medical
profession.
(Michael P. Farrell / Times Union)
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Sabrina Permaul, left, with her
children Nyaira, 4, and Nianna,
7, talks Thursday, July 10,
about the AMA's apology for
more than a century of
discrimination against black
doctors.
(Paul Buckowski / Times Union) |
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It wasn't until the 1960s that the AMA took a
strong stance against policies dating to the 1800s
that barred Blacks from some state and local medical
societies, a prequisite for obtaining hospital privileges.
Dr. Harvey Allen, Sr.
Dr. Thaddeus J. Bell
Dr. Myers (right) treating an elderly patient (left) in Tchula, Mississippi
during a recent house visit with People Magazine.
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