Many
African-American physicians play a dual role in their communities: healers and
change agents. Their education and their historic position in the black community
place them in these roles. Dr. William F. Reid, a native of Richmond, graduate
of Virginia Union University and Howard University Medical School, lives up
to this tradition exceedingly well.
During the Korean War, Reid
was a navy surgeon saving lives at a field hospital near the front. He returned
to Richmond in 1955 when mony people believed the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court's
decision against school segregation would speed the process of equal opportunity
for African-Americans.
Alarmed by attitudes of certain
state officials and the constant road blocks placed in the path of civil rights
for black people, Reid mobilized Virginians to form Crusade for Voters. Their
efforts were so successful that it became a national model for voter education
and registration.
Reid's crusade drew him into
politics. He was elected to the state's General Assembly in 1967, the first
black American since Reconstruction to win this honor. This strong man left
the General Assembly in 1973, and four years later became the first black American
physician to serve as a medical officer for the U.S. State Department. In this
capacity, he practiced medicine all over the world and received additional training
in the treatment of addictive diseases.
Retired since 1990, he has
continued to raise money for medical services at the local, national, and international
levels. More importantly, his special training in addictive diseases helps him
treat people with alcohol and drug addiction. Reid has truly lived up to his
dual role as healer and change agent.
