The American Medical Association has issued a formal apology for racist actions in its past, including a policy that barred black physicians from its ranks for decades. In a commentary appearing in the July 16 Journal of the American Medical Association, AMA immediate past president Ronald Davis admitted that the group had not only excluded black doctors, but it had also failed to speak out during struggles over legislation designed to end racial discrimination.
In writing the JAMA column, Davis was following up on the work of a committee of experts convened by the AMA to examine the black-white tensions in U.S. medicine. The panel noted that the AMA had excluded black doctors from state and local associations, listed black doctors as "colored" in its national physician directory, failed to participate in debates over the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and for some years, refused to join efforts that would force hospitals built with federal funds not to engage in racial discrimination.
To learn more about the AMA's position:
- read this Washington Post article
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