Joycelyn Elders
Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones on August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States. Elders is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization and distributing contraception in schools. She was fired mid-term in December 1994 amidst controversy.
Read more about Joycelyn Elders: Early Life and Education, Career and Tenure As U.S. Surgeon General, Post-Governmental Activities
Famous quotes by joycelyn elders:
“You can’t be what you don’t see. I didn’t think about being a doctor. I didn’t even think about being a clerk in a store—I’d never seen a black clerk in a clothing store.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“... given a choice between hearing my daughter say ‘I’m pregnant’ or ‘I used a condom,’ most mothers would get up in the middle of the night and buy them herself.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“We really need to get over this love affair with the fetus and start worrying about children.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“... the black girls didn’t get these pills because their black ministers were up on the pulpit saying that birth control pills were black genocide. What I’m saying is that black men have exploited black women.... They didn’t want them to have any choice about their reproductive health. And if you can’t control your reproduction, you can’t control your life.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)
“Once I had a professor say to me, ‘You know you have as much education as a lot of white people.’ I answered, ‘Doctor, I have more education than most white people.’”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)