From the Pittsburg (TX) Gazette:
Pittsburg native, anti-abortion activist, dies
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Former museum president John Holman and Dr. Mildred Jefferson greet reporters outside St. Beulah C.M.E. Church, where Dr. Jefferson's father was a pastor. Dr. Jefferson spoke at a Black History Program in Pittsburg in 1993. |
Dr. Mildred Jefferson, one of Pittsburg's most acclaimed natives, died Oct. 16 in Cambridge, Mass. She was 84. Dr. Jefferson was the first African-American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School and the first female surgical intern at Boston City Hospital.
Dr. Jefferson was born April 6, 1926, to Gurthie and Millard Jefferson. Her father was a Methodist minister who pastored at St. Beulah C.M.E. Church, and her mother was a teacher at Center Point. They moved from Pittsburg when Dr. Jefferson was just a baby, according to local historian Nina Johnson.
After she graduated from Texas College in Tyler, Dr. Jefferson earned a master's degree from Tufts University in Medford, Mass. She then enrolled at Harvard Medical School where she graduated in 1951. Dr. Jefferson received 28 honorary degrees. She was the first woman to receive the Lantern Award for Patriotism from the Massachusetts State Council Knights of Columbus. She was a member of Black Americans for Life and led the Right to Life Crusade for many years. Earlier this year, Dr. Jefferson was named as an adult supervisor to the newly-formed Massachusetts Assembly of Teenage Republicans and the New England Federation of TARS.
Dr. Karen Antman, dean of Boston University School of Medicine, and provost of Boston University Medical Campus, said Dr. Jefferson's legacy will live on through the lives of those she touched.
"As the first woman surgical intern at Boston City Hospital, Dr. Jefferson was a trailblazer," Dr. Antman said. "We are grateful for her contributions to our faculty and to the field of medicine. Dr. Jefferson served as a mentor and a role model to many."
Although Dr. Jefferson first received recognition for her college and medical accomplishments, she was probably best known for her role as a leader of the anti-abortion movement. A profile in "African American Lives" states she became politically active in 1970, after the American Medical Association passed a resolution stating that members could ethically perform abortions if the procedure was legal in their states. She then began an unending fight against abortion. She appeared as an expert witness in key trials, including the trail against Dr. Kenneth Edelin, a Boston doctor charged with manslaughter for performing an abortion on a Roxbury, Mass. teenager.
She was a founder of the National Right to Life Committee and served three years as president. In a 2003 interview in "American Feminist" magazine, Dr. Jefferson said the anti-abortion movement was "second only to the abolitionist movement" in the way it changed American thinking.
"I am at once a physician, a citizen and a woman, and I am not willing to stand aside and allow this concept of expendable human lives to turn this great land of ours into just another exclusive reservation where only the perfect, the privileged and the planned have the right to live," she said in the interview.
Dr. Jefferson spoke so passionately about the matter, she even changed President Ronald Reagan's views when he was governor of California, according to Massachusetts Citizens for Life president Anne Fox.
"Before Roe v. Wade, Dr. Jefferson was on "The Advocates," a program on the educational channel in Boston," Ms. Fox said. "It was a high-quality debate on abortion. Gov. Reagan was so impressed by what she had to say, that he contacted her, and he completed changed his position."
From that moment on, he referred to Dr. Jefferson as 'my favorite doctor,' said Dr. Jefferson's former public relations director, Judie Brown.
"He adored her; they had a tremendous relationship," Mrs. Brown said.
Mrs. Brown worked as Dr. Jefferson's public relations director from 1976 until 1979. She said Dr. Jefferson was petite, but powerful.
"She was in such high demand, and she was always on call with the media," Mrs. Brown said. "She was very controversial, and she took a very hard line when it came to abortion. There has been nobody since her that could even measure up to the compelling message she delivered. She was so eloquent and so beautiful, and the media just loved her."
Ms. Fox said Dr. Jefferson had a hat for every occasion.
"If she was doing a TV program, she'd wear an old hat to the studio, and put on a different hat before she went on the air," Ms. Fox said. "Then she'd change back into the old hat when she left. She even had a Republican convention hat. There was always a reason for the hat, and she was wonderful in them. I think because she was so small, she realized it would make her much more visible. She was definitely a lady and a very good representative of East Texas."
Mrs. Brown said she spoke to Dr. Jefferson three days before her death.
"One of the things I loved about Mildred was, up until the end she challenged us constantly to do better," Mrs. Brown said. "She was the architect of the pro-life movement. She referred to herself as the people's doctor. She cared about the grassroots people and inspired them to do more for the babies. That's her legacy."
Dr. Jefferson also threw her hat in the political ring. She ran unsuccessfully for political office, including as a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in 1982, 1984 and 1990.
Dr. Jefferson was the featured speaker at the 1993 Black History Program, sponsored by the Northeast Texas Rural Heritage Museum. She told a group at Pittsburg High School, and a crowd of more than 200 at First United Methodist Church, that education is the key to success.
"One can be ashamed if they are going to use history as the excuse for never doing anything in the present or future," she said that evening. "I really don't care that my ancestors came here on slave ships. They got here, and because they got here, this is my home, my native land."
She said, though she grew up in an era when East Texas blacks were openly treated as second-class citizens, her childhood set the stage for her adult success.
"I had a little better start in life than some people," she said at the 1993 Black History Program. "I came from a background of a community and tradition that understood the value of sharing. I also was inculcated with the sense of duty, honor and obligation. So it became second nature that we do the very best with what we have."
Services for Dr. Jefferson were pending at press time.
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