A Prescription for Change: Black Voices Shaping Healthcare in Virginia

NJG Newswire
RICHMOND

The groundbreaking exhibition, A Prescription for Change has been extended through April 26, 2025 at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia (BHMVA) in Richmond.  The exhibition which was created and curated by Historian Elvatrice Parker Belsches uses powerful narratives, stunning photographs and rare artifacts to offer an overview of the history of Blacks in the healthcare professions from the 1700s-Present.

Every major area of the Commonwealth of Virginia is represented and Tidewater medical practitioners, Black hospitals such as Norfolk Community and Whittaker Memorial, and Black Healthcare organizations are included.

The exhibition is divided into eight (8) sections:

1. The Early Years (1790-1890); 2. Education; 3. Physicians, Optometrists and Chiropractors; 4. Dentists; 5. Pharmacists; 6. Nurses, Midwives and Doulas; 7. The Black Hospital Movement in Virginia; and 8. Black Healthcare Organizations.

Highlights From The Tidewater Area

The Tidewater area has been home to countless medical practitioners, organizations and healthcare facilities whose contributions are national in scope.

Among those national leaders who have called Tidewater and Norfolk home was Dr. G. Hamilton Francis MD (1885-1963). Dr. Francis immigrated from the British West Indies and graduated from Meharry Medical College in 1911. He would serve as president of the National Medical Association (NMA) and the Old Dominion Medical Society, and is credited with founding the House of Delegates of the (NMA). He was instrumental in securing post-graduate educational opportunities for Black physicians nationally.

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Dr. Hugo A Owens Sr. DDS (1916-2008), who resided in Portsmouth and Chesapeake, was an outstanding dental leader who also served as president of National Dental Associations (NDA). Dr. Owens’ major contributions to civil rights and politics were also monumental.

Rare photographs of Norfolk Community Hospital and Whittaker Memorial Hospital are included with their histories and many more.

Several weeks ago the third, fourth and fifth generations of the family of Dr. G. Hamilton Francis MD. visited the exhibition. Mrs. Judith Mitchell Taylor, accompanied by her son and daughter, and her two grandsons, ages four and nine, had impactful reactions.

Mrs. Taylor, Dr. Francis’ granddaughter, who resides in Maryland, said, “I was excited after my first visit and I wanted to share it with my family. The entire exhibit was amazing!”

During the visit, her grandson Maxwell (Max) Taylor, age nine (9) was so proud at seeing his great-great grandfather Dr. Francis in a group photo, that he reached up and tried to symbolically hug the photo.

When asked by his grandmother his thoughts on the exhibition and seeing his great, great grandfather honored, Max said, “I loved it. I am a descendent of somebody who did good in the world!”

Mrs. Taylor remembered being with her grandfather in Norfolk. “Before I even started nursery school, my grandfather would take me to work with him every day at Community Hospital, so seeing the picture of Norfolk Community Hospital brought back so many memories!”

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Elvatrice Parker Belsches BA BS Pharm MA, the Creator, Curator and Historian for the exhibition, has close ties to Norfolk in that her parents, the late Ernest and Mary Parker were born and raised in Norfolk. She is also the niece of the late noted organist, choral leader, Black composer and NSU faculty member Reginald Nathaniel Parker Sr.