As a child, 40-year-old Dontal Johnson dreamed of becoming a doctor, but never saw himself represented in the profession.
“I had never seen a black doctor growing up, and one of the crazier things is I never saw a black doctor until I went to college,” Johnson said.
Johnson decided to apply to medical schools in Texas, but when a friend told him about a potential school in Nashville, Tennessee, full of black students, he was in disbelief.
“He started describing a place with people who looked like me: dentists, doctors, scientists. So I went home that night. It was still — I had dial-up internet — so I had to wait for it to show up. And then came these photo stills came across from Meharry and I applied that evening at about 1 or 2 o’clock at night”
After graduating from Meharry Medical College – a historically black institution – he decided to stay in the community and is now a pediatrician and professor there.
“I think one of the things that’s really coming to light is the patient population of African Americans and how systemic racism, how the history, how health care in general has not always been there for this patient population,” Johnson said.
Black patients generally do better health outcomes when treated by black doctors, recent studies show.
To promote these connections, said former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently announced a $600 million gift to all four medical schools at historically black colleges and universities: Meharry, Morehouse School of Medicine, Howard University College of Medicine and Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. Together, they have trained approximately 50% of all black physicians in the United States, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
According to the US Census Bureau, African Americans currently make up about 14% of the population. But according to AAMC, they represent only 5.2% of physicians nationwide.
“Having a health care provider is important in the community, but so is having one Black healthcare provider is making every effort,” said Dr. Valerie Montgomery-Rice, president of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. “First, it will allow us to educate and train more Black and brown physicians, and it will enabling students to have more choice in where they want to practice and be less burdened with debt.”
That’s something she’s already seen.
In 2020, Bloomberg gave the Morehouse School of Medicine $26 million to help students pay off their debt. General practitioner Jamil Joyner received $100,000.
“Not only does it say, ‘We believe in Black physicians,’ it also says, ‘We believe in Black institutions, and how they will play a role in changing healthcare for Black individuals,” Joyner said.
For Dr. Dontal Johnson, more investments in black doctors are needed.
“I am a living witness to that, to the training of African American physicians, physicians who serve and care for those in need. So if you look at the data together and say, hey, if we partner with African American physicians and we put We’re seeing less strokes in communities, we’re seeing less hypertension in the community, we’re seeing less obesity,” Johnson said.
With healthier communities comes a healthier nation.
Jericka Duncan
