Elders, Joycelyn << EHL duhrz, JOY suh lihn >> (1933-…), an American physician, served as surgeon general of the United States under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1994. She was the first African American to hold the position. As surgeon general, Elders was known as an outspoken advocate of sex education programs in schools.
Minnie Lee Jones was born on Aug. 13, 1933, in Schaal, Arkansas, to a poor family of farmers. She changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn, then simply Joycelyn, while in college. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1952. In 1953, she joined the Army and trained in physical therapy at the Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After discharge in 1956, she attended the University of Arkansas Medical School. She earned her M.D. degree from the school in 1960. That year, she married Oliver Elders. In 1967, Joycelyn Elders earned an M.S. degree in biochemistry from the University of Arkansas. She soon began teaching pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical School and became a full professor in 1976. In 1978, she became the first person in the state of Arkansas to become board certified in pediatric endocrinology. Endocrinology is the study of glands that produce hormones that regulate other organs in the body.
In 1987, Bill Clinton, then governor of Arkansas, chose Elders to be the director of the Arkansas Department of Health. In that post, she increased the number of public health clinics, improved childhood immunization rates, and supported school health services that included the distribution of contraceptives (birth control devices).
As surgeon general, Elders especially concentrated on national health care, teenage pregnancy and AIDS prevention, infant health, gun control, and the dangers of alcohol, drug misuse, and tobacco use. In 1994, she helped launch a campaign to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). SIDS is a term used to describe the unexpected death of an apparently healthy baby. Most SIDS deaths occur among infants between 1 and 6 months of age. The campaign emphasized that putting infants to sleep on their side or back may reduce their risk of suffocation.
Elders attracted controversy as surgeon general. She spoke in favor of studying the legalization of drugs and the distribution of contraceptives in public schools. She also criticized the Roman Catholic Church for its opposition to abortion. In 1994, Clinton forced Elders to resign after she agreed that perhaps schoolchildren should be taught about masturbation to prevent the spread of AIDS.
After resigning, Elders returned to the University of Arkansas as a faculty researcher and as a professor of pediatric endocrinology at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She wrote an autobiography, Joycelyn Elders, M.D.: From Sharecropper’s Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America (1996). In 1998, Elders retired from medicine. She became a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
See also Surgeon general of the United States.
