Barbara Justice

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Barbara J. Justice-Muhammad [1] is an American forensic and clinical psychiatrist [2] as well as a surgical oncologist. The first African-American woman to be trained in general surgery at Columbia University Medical Center. She worked at Harlem Hospital, Abundant Life Clinic, and Memorial Sloane Kettering sites in New York City. She is well known for her long-running New York radio show, Medical View and You, [3] and was honored in 1996 when Mayor David Dinkins proclaimed a citywide Barbara Justice Day for her contribution to the community's health. [4]

Contents

Biography

Justice received a BA from the City College of New York. In 1971, she did Post BA / Pre-Medicine studies at Columbia University and Connecticut College. After attaining her MD from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC in 1977, [2] she had an interest in pursuing both surgery and psychiatry, and intended to eventually practice both. While at Howard, she became pregnant with her son, Kamao Justice Douglas, but refused to quit school. [1]

Justice states that she felt isolated until she received support from the Nation of Islam. People began to think that she had actually joined when she began researching the origin of the AIDS virus with medical members of the organization. [5] However, Justice never joined the Nation of Islam in 1994. [1]

Career

Justice advocated vigorously for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to focus on better treatments for the AIDS epidemic that was ravaging the black and gay communities, as she considered that the high dose used in Zidovudine (AZT) treatment was poisonous. [6] She eventually became an investigative researcher for NIH after becoming involved with a search for better treatment. Many felt that origin and handling of AIDS required investigation in light of historical institutional mishandling of contagious diseased, such as in the Tuskegee Study, where black patients who had syphilis were left untreated to spread the virus for more than thirty years. Many in the black community and others felt that AIDS might be a plot to exterminate black people, and theorized that greater amounts of melanin in the black population made them more vulnerable to AIDS. In August 1990, Justice, along with Gary Byrd, visited Nairobi to learn more about experimental treatments for AIDS. [7] Justice, along with her colleagues, worked with the National Institutes of Health in 1992 to set up trials for oral interferons such as Kemron to treat AIDS, and came to promote their use. [6] [8] According to a Nation of Islam doctor, 82% of the patients with AIDS who were treated with interferons at the Abundant Life clinic "experienced increased appetite and other improvement." [9] Justice also arranged for AIDS patients in New York to go to Nairobi in order to receive Kemron treatments. [10] Despite the NIH's criticism of Kemron, Justice continued promoting it, feeling that there was a reluctance to explore and include black research. [11] She also believed that the white conservative medical profession needed to deal with the fact that statistically, more black people were infected with AIDS worldwide than other groups. [5] She is referenced in the autobiography of Arthur Ashe when he described his battle with the deadly disease.

Justice treated many notable people for many different illnesses besides AIDS. She was Stokely Carmichael's personal physician. [12] She treated him for a duodenal ulcer in 1988 and Carmichael called her a "kindred spirit." [13] Later, she diagnosed him with cancer. [14] As surgeon, Justice was the attending physician at Tupac Shakur's first shooting and oversaw his recovery. [15]

Honors and awards

Lectures and presentations

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References

  1. 1 2 3 McKinney-Whetstone, Diane; Cain, Joy Duckett (December 1996). "Our Beauty Our Strength" . Essence. 27 (8): 71. Retrieved 17 May 2016– via EBSCO.
  2. 1 2 "Barbara J. Justice, MD, ABPN, ABFP". Elite American Physicians. 10 January 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  3. ↑ English, Merle (Feb 7, 1990). "BROOKLYN NEIGHBORHOODS". Newsday. p. 21. Archived from the original on February 1, 2013. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
  4. ↑ Moderator, Marquis Who's Who (2021-05-10). "Barbara J. Justice, MD". Marquis Top Healthcare. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  5. 1 2 Fiske, John; Hancock, Black Hawk (2016). Media Matters: Race & Gender in the U.S. Politics (2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN   9781317498520.
  6. 1 2 Wittes, Benjamin (29 October 2007). "Miracle Worker?". Washington City Paper. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Racism Charged as AIDS Drug is Challenged". Santa Cruz Sentinel. 2 September 1990. Retrieved 18 May 2016– via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "The Angry Politics of Kemron". Newsweek. 3 January 1993. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  9. ↑ "AIDS Work at a Nation of Islam Clinic Is Questioned". The New York Times. 4 March 1994. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  10. ↑ "The History Of Kemron Clinical Trials". Washington Informer. 14 May 1997. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Nattrass, Niccoli (2012). The AIDS Conspiracy: Science Fights Back. Columbia University Press. p. 59. ISBN   9780231520256.
  12. ↑ "Newsmakers". Aiken Standard. 1 March 1996. Retrieved 17 May 2016– via Newspaper Archive.
  13. ↑ Carmichael, Stokely; Thewlwell, Ekwueme Michael (2003). Ready for Revolution: The Life and Struggles of Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). New York: Scribner. p. 736. ISBN   9780684850030.
  14. ↑ Rice, John (26 May 1996). "Pan-African Crusader Still Ready for Revolution". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Wounded Rap Artist Avoids Jail, for Now". The New York Times. 15 December 1994. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
  16. ↑ "APA Minority Fellows Program Participants Announced". Psychiatric News. 37 (18): 13. 20 September 2002. doi:10.1176/pn.37.18.0013b.
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