Summary of Legacy by Uché Blackstock: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine

By Justin Reese

DISCLAIMER

 

This book does not in any capacity mean to replace the original book but to serve as a vast summary of the original book.

 

Summary of Legacy by Uché Blackstock: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine

IN THIS SUMMARIZED BOOK, YOU WILL GET:

• Chapter astute outline of the main contents.
• Fast & simple understanding of the content analysis.
• Exceptionally summarized content that you may skip in the original book

Legacy is a memoir by Uché Blackstock, a Black physician who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up, she and her sister, Oni, were not aware of the deep inequities in the U.S. healthcare system. Only 2% of U.S. physicians are Black women, and they were the first Black mother-daughter legacies from Harvard Medical School. Dr. Blackstock became aware of the systemic barriers Black patients and physicians continue to face, becoming an ER physician and later a professor in academic medicine. Legacy is a call to action against the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, as it serves as a searing indictment of the healthcare system and a generational family memoir.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: jUSTIN REESE
• Release date: Feb 9, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224329212

Book preview

The Original Dr. Blackstock

From an early age, the author and their twin sister, Oni, loved to play with their mother's doctor's bag, an old-school black leather bag that contained medical instruments. They would often visit her room to empty out the contents of the bag, including her stethoscope, hammer, otoscope, and ophthalmoscope. By the time they went to Harvard Medical School, the instruments were familiar to them.

The author grew up in Brooklyn during the 1980s and '90s, where they saw Black women who were physicians. Their mother practiced medicine at Kings County Hospital Center and its state affiliate, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. Their own pediatrician, Dr. June Mulvaney, was a bespectacled, kind older woman with soft hands and a softer smile. Dr. Mildred Clarke, an obstetriciangynecologist, lived on their block and was the president of an organization of local Black women physicians.

The author's mother was determined to give her children every opportunity she had lacked. They grew up in a bustling neighborhood, filled with middle-class and working-class families, a uniquely Brooklyn mix of Black Americans and immigrants from the Caribbean. Her mother was constantly reading to them, taking them on educational adventures, and giving them extra assignments when they entered grade school.

On weekends and holidays, they went to popular NYC museums, the United Nations, and science exhibits, with their mother narrating and explaining things as they went along. Even a walk around their neighborhood was an educational adventure, with her perusing her pocket-size book on flowers and pointing out different types in their neighbors' front yards.

The author recalls their mother's dedication to nephrology, the study of the kidneys, as a child. They recall her teaching students about the kidney's complex nature and the importance of a cylinder-shaped filter in dialysis machines. The author later learns that her mother chose nephrology as a specialty because kidney disease disproportionately affects Black people, and she wanted to help address these health problems.

The author's mother also influenced Black medical students and junior faculty at Downstate, becoming a mentor to a generation of Brooklyn physicians. She even mentored a former student of the author's, who later became the associate dean in the Office of Diversity Education and Research at a New York City medical school.

The author's mother was tireless in her work ethic, even after leaving the hospital. She was president of the Susan Smith McKinney Steward Medical Society, a local organization of Black women physicians. During the society's meetings, the author and her mother would sit in the back of a large conference room, doing their homework and discussing health issues. They would also plan community health fairs, dispense information, and counsel neighbors about healthy diet and exercise.

The author and their mother were role models for their children, who worked, raised children, took care of their households, and gave back to their communities.

Growing up, Oni and her mother were surrounded by Black women physicians, but their mother had a different experience. Raised by a single mother and five siblings, she lived in rodent- and roach-infested apartments. The family received support from Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) but never received enough funds. Grandma, a sturdy woman with a no-nonsense personality, raised smart children and was talented in her own right. She passed the exam to become a licensed practical nurse without ever cracking a textbook.

As a child, Oni suffered from a severe stutter, which her grandmother could not afford. Eventually, she overcame the speech impediment but developed a deep-seated fear of speaking in public. She developed empathy for those who were struggling and a desire to help people. At her all-girls Catholic high school in Brooklyn, Oni realized she might not make it as a nun or a saint and decided to become a physician. She studied liberal arts at New York City Community College and Brooklyn College, where she was mentored by Dr. Clyde Dillard, a Black chemistry professor. She majored in biology and completed her premed courses, and was accepted to the Harvard Health Career Summer Program, which allowed her to take courses at Harvard Medical School.

The author's mother, a Black girl from Brooklyn, experienced a culture shock on her first day of medical school at Harvard. Her classmates were predominantly white and from affluent backgrounds, with a 10% Black student body. Despite the diversity initiatives initiated after Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, the author's mother was shy due to her stutter and struggled to take advantage of the support provided by the faculty.

However, she was able to befriend Black classmates who supported her, including Jessie Sherrod, the first student from HBCU Tougaloo College to attend Harvard Medical School. Jessie had grown up in Mississippi with a father who was a local civil rights leader and instilled in her a strong sense of self. After integrating a café in her small town, Jessie sat down with a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee activist, Chuck Carpenter, and the rest is history.

The author believes that portraying her mother's story solely as an exceptionalism would be an injustice. To truly pay tribute to her mother, the author must situate her story within the historical barriers faced by Black people entering the medical field. For centuries, white-only medical schools with exclusionary policies and practices made it virtually impossible for Black people to receive medical training. It wasn't until Reconstruction that Black medical schools emerged in the South, enabling greater access