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Special Issue 2025
Volume 12 | Issue No. 101
I dared not correct my elders, though my
knees buckled at certain constructions,
to say nothing of the contradictions.
We didn't answer "sir" to teenagers,
so why did grandma answer "sir" to a
white teenager? My push for justness in
conversation earned me a few beatings
and some alienation, and cost me a new
pair of shoes. Still, my abstinence persisted,
not so much as an act of rebellion, but
as an outcry for clarity in a confused
young life knocked topsy-turvy by race.
More specifically, I balked unknowingly
at this early parental pressure to get me
converted, born again, and socialized into
a state of inferiority—to be made a Negro.
(Journalist and author Les Brown, "The
Night I Stopped Being a Negro")
A New Thing
Something else happened in 1971. It
was the year the University of Missouri-
Kansas City School of Medicine started
its medical program, led by Provost E.
Grey Dimond, M.D. and Dean Richardson
Noback, M.D. Out of the gate, Dean
Noback required that 10% of the inaugural
class represent minoritized people. He
wanted the program's student body to
represent the community it would serve.
Michael Weaver, M.D., President and
CEO of Kansas City-based Mission Vision
Project (MVPKC), was one of four African
American students accepted into UMKC's
inaugural medical school class of 40 and
would be the first African American person
to graduate from the program's inaugural
class.
Dr. Weaver grew up in Kansas City near
27th and Prospect. He was the product
of two parents who were both educators
in the Kansas City Public School system.
Thanks to early exposure to the health
professions through a Medical Explorers
Post at Research Hospital, Dr. Weaver
solidified his interest in medicine.
"I always knew I wanted to do something
science-related," Dr. Weaver said. "I was
a bit of a science nerd. But it wasn't until
I really had a chance to see patient care
first hand up close that I knew this is what I
wanted to do."
Those experiences caused a ripple effect
that aligned perfectly with what he'd do
next. Dr. Weaver graduated from high
school the same year the six-year medical
program at UMKC started. "And so the
idea of being able to complete medical
school in six years rather than eight years
was perfect," he said.
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