“It was interesting. It was 1969 when I first got here, and the hospital had sort of desegregated. And I say “sort of.” It's not a very exact term. On paper, it was, but in point of fact, it was not because there were private diagnostic clinic patients, and there were “staff patients.” In order to be a private patient, you would have to have money or insurance. Most of the African Americans and some poor whites did not have [those things]. So, they were in staff clinics, and you’ve probably seen some pictures of the clinics. They typically had two appointment times: 8 and 1. People would come very early hoping to get in line first. Some people would obviously sit there for hours waiting to be seen. There was a way of getting care and specialty care, but it was also really, really difficult and very different from, say, the private clinics.”
-Joanne Wilson discussing her early clinical experiences as a Duke medical student.
February is Black History Month! This year will be highlighting four Black people who advocated for racial justice at Duke Health. These individuals were profiled for the recent Bass Connections project “Agents of Change: Portraits of Activism in the History of Duke Health.” Read our profile on Brenda Armstrong here and Donald Moore here.
This week’s profile features Joanne A. Peebles Wilson, Professor Emeritus of Medicine in Gastroenterology. Throughout her decorated career at Duke, she was a trailblazer, staunch advocate of preventive medicine and health equity, dedicated clinician, and leader.
Dr. Wilson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina and was Valedictorian at Cardinal Gibbons High School. In 1969, she graduated with a BS in Chemistry with highest honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She graduated with honors from Duke University School Of Medicine in 1973, becoming the second Black woman to graduate from Duke’s medical school. She also served as President of the medical school student body and was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society.
After several internships and residencies, Wilson joined the staff at the University of Michigan Medical Center as a gastroenterologist. She returned to Duke as a faculty member in 1986, serving as Associate Professor and Associate Chief of Gastroenterology for Outpatient Services. In 1995, she became the second woman in the Duke Department of Medicine to achieve the rank of Full Professor. She is widely published and has won numerous awards.
Ava Meigs interviewed Dr. Wilson on March 2, 2024. In the interview, Wilson discusses her experiences as an undergraduate student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her experiences as a medical student at Duke, her diverse forms of activism, and her thoughts on the path to equity in medicine and at Duke.
We encourage to listen to the full interview and/or read the interview transcript here:
https://exhibits.mclibrary.duke.edu/agents-of-change/racial-justice/joanne-wilson.