Joycelyn Elders (1933 - )
Sun Aug 13, 1933
Dr. Joycelyn Elders, born on this day in 1933, is an American pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. Elders was the first African American to serve as Surgeon General and is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization, masturbation, and distributing contraception in schools.
Although she faced censure from the Clinton administration for advocating the legalization of drugs, it was her sex positive view on masturbation that led to her removal from office. After stating “I think that [masturbation] is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught”, Clinton forced her to resign as Surgeon General in December of 1994. She is currently a professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
“If you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life.”
- Dr. Joycelyn Elders
- Date: 1933-08-13
- Learn More: en.wikipedia.org, cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov, pryorcenter.uark.edu.
- Tags: #Birthdays.
- Source: www.apeoplescalendar.org
This was a time when there were interns for that sort of thing.
Well, that’s a week’s worth of irony.
Happy to know of this woman. Thanks for posting.
She was the best surgeon general we’ve had. It was infuriating to me that she got booted for doing the job to the best of her ability because what she said wasn’t popular. It still is infuriating.
I remember the late night hosts had a field day with the masturbation thing, but very revealing about our country that it was controversial.
