Celebrating African-American Women Firsts

By Jon Parham

 
State Sen. Linda Pondexter Chesterfield, of Little Rock, was keynote speaker and an honoree
at UAMS’ Black History Month event honoring
outstanding African-American women.
Ameria Jones, one of the Black History Month honorees, performed a  praise dance during the event.
Ameria Jones, one of the Black History Month honorees, performed a praise dance during the event.

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Like that poem, “Still I Rise,” the 15 women celebrated at this year’s Black History Month event at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) demonstrate confidence, grace and strength.

Odette Woods, chair of the Chancellor’s Diversity Committee, said the honorees of “And Still I Rise…: Celebrating African-American Women Firsts in Our Community” have excelled in a variety of areas including: health care, communications, the arts, business, public service and theology.

Keynote speaker and honoree Linda Pondexter Chesterfield, of Little Rock, a member of the Arkansas state Senate, was recognized for being the first black graduate of Hendrix College in Conway and the first black female to serve as both president of the Arkansas Education Association and president of the Pulaski County Association of Classroom Teachers.

She said she was grateful to acknowledge “standing today on the shoulders of giants,” including fellow honoree and one of her role models, Joycelyn Elders, the nation’s first black female surgeon general. Chesterfield challenged the audience of mostly health care industry professionals not to lose focus on HIV/AIDS education and services, especially because the rate of HIV infection in black women is more than fifteen times as high as the rate for white women.

“What slavery and Jim Crow could not do is eliminate a group of people,” Chesterfield said. But, by eliminating mothers, HIV/AIDS can, she said.

Carmelita Smith, diversity manager for UAMS, opened the program with an exuberant call to honor some familiar names and “unsung heroes” who have achieved “firsts” at UAMS and in Arkansas. “Just because they are ladies, does not mean they can’t be role models for men,” Smith said. She also noted part of the strategic mission of UAMS is to reach out and engage the community.

In his closing remarks, UAMS Chancellor Dan Rahn said, “True leaders try to leave the world in better shape than it was when they found it and that’s exactly what these women have done. They have not only opened doors so other women could follow in their footsteps but they have given freely of their time to mentor other women so that they too could be successful.”

The event drew people from the community as well as UAMS employees. “It’s good to see someone who looks like me making a difference in our community,” Renetta Cheathem, of Byrant, said. “I applaud UAMS for sponsoring this program and raising awareness about our local black history.”

“I read about it and I knew I just had to come!” said Belinda Sanders, program director for the Arkansas Literacy Councils. Sanders, a mother of three daughters ages 16 to 25, said the program motivated her to be an even better person in her family and in her community.

This year’s honorees were recognized for being outstanding in their fields:

Joycelyn Elders, M.D. — the first person in Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology, the first black and only the second woman to head the U.S. Public Health Service as U.S. surgeon general, to which she was appointed in 1993 by President Bill Clinton.

• Former state Sen. Irma Hunter Brown — first black female elected to the Arkansas House of Representatives and the Arkansas Senate.

• Dana Carthron, Ph.D., R.N. — first black female and first person to graduate from the UAMS College of Nursing BSN to PhD program. She currently serves as an assistant professor at Winston-Salem State University and a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University.

• State Sen. Linda Pondexter Chesterfield — first black female to serve as both president of the Arkansas Teachers Association (ATA) and president of the Pulaski County Association of Classroom Teachers; first black graduate from Hendrix College; and only Arkansan to serve on the nine-member executive committee of the National Education Association (NEA).

• The Rev. Mamie Wilkins Cooper — first and only black female to be appointed presiding elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) in Arkansas.

• Jujuan English, Ph.D., R.N. — first black female to receive a Ph.D. from the UAMS College of Nursing. She is currently director of the nursing program at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

Betholyn Gentry, Ph.D. — first black female to serve as president-elect and president of the Arkansas Speech Language and Hearing Association. She is currently professor of speech pathology in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, a joint program of UAMS and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She is co-director of the Consortium Ph.D. program, a joint effort of UAMS, UALR and the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

• Garbo Hearne — first black female certified art appraiser to own an art gallery in Arkansas, Hearne Fine Arts Gallery.

• Barbara Johnson, M.S.N., R.N. — first black female head nurse in the UAMS operating room and first black female to head the Department of Operating Room Technology in the UAMS College of Health Related Professions, later renamed Surgical Technology. She was also the first black female appointed to the Arkansas State Board of Health and first black female to serve as its president.

• Ameria Jones — first certified black female praise dancer, a style of dance that allows the artist to give God praise through graceful movement, in the state of Arkansas. Actress, singer, dancer, choreographer and storyteller, Jones is a graduate of Baptist Health School of Histotechnology.

• Loretta Lever — first black female owner of a radio station in Arkansas (KYFX-FM known as FOXY 99.5), recognized as one of the top 10 stations in Little Rock. She is currently owner of Choice Promotions.

• Patricia Marks, Ph.D. — first black female to earn a doctoral degree from the UAMS Graduate School. She is currently a biology professor at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff.

• Brooke E. E. Montgomery, M.P.H., Ph.D. — first black and first graduate from Health Promotion and Prevention Research in the UAMS Graduate School and the College of Public Health. She currently serves as an assistant professor in the College of Public Health.

Ronda Henry-Tillman, M.D. — first black female professor in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Surgery.

• Judge Joyce Williams Warren, J.D. — first black person elected to a state-level trial court judgeship in Arkansas. She serves as a juvenile judge for Pulaski and Perry Counties. She is the first black female graduate of the UALR School of Law (now William H. Bowen School of Law).