I was a VERY busy lady. VERY.
Sorry you ain’t get a fact on Friday, but not really sorry because it was the start of my vacation!
And lemme tell y’all. Sometimes I need vacations from my vacations.
Because I be doing a lot. I WAS NOT ALONE IN MY EXTRANESS.

I was in Oakland for the weekend!
I went up because The Boy had a show Saturday, and I am nothing if not a supportive mother fucker who loves to go to concerts
I went with my sissie and my cousin. Because they’ve never been up to see him play a show.
I’m biased, of course, but I still say he’s pretty damn good.

BUT.

Here’s the thing about traveling to the Bay:
I have a lot of friends there.
And when I can, I try to cram seeing everybody into one trip.
So! Meet some for Dinner. Sommore for Lunch.
OH. You say you have a thingy that’s sorta local? Sign me up.
[Do I know the way to San Jose? I do. Now]

Anyways.

It was interesting. Because I got to see one of my BFFs doing her workshit*
And I’ll be honest, she’s kinda amazing at her workshit [don’t forget about the work filters! I never do]
And so for a couple hours, I listened to her and some people talk about smoking, and e-cigarettes.
I’m sure you’re not surprised at all to hear that I have opinions about things that affect black people.
Especially how for tobacco companies SPECIFICALLY targeted black folks in its advertisements and promotional efforts for menthol cigarettes, which are more addictive than other types of cigarettes.

But I’m not here to talk about that. I’m here to talk about don’t challenge ME to find an obscure fact during black history month because I will most certainly find one
Dr Louis Wade Sullivan, first black intern at New York Hospital, and founding dean and director of the Medical Education Program at Morehouse College in 1975.
Who in 1981, became Dean and President when, the school became independent from Morehouse College and was renamed Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), making it the first minority medical school founded in the United States in the twentieth century.
AND THEN. In 1989 Sullivan was appointed by U.S. president George H. W. Bush to lead the nation’s policy efforts and champion the health and welfare of the country as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Among his efforts to improve the health and health behavior of Americans were the public education program focused on the health dangers from tobacco use (including the successful efforts to prevent the introduction of “Uptown,” a non-filtered, mentholated cigarette),

Dr Sullivan returned to Morehouse School of Medicine in 1993, serving as president until his retirement on July 1, 2002, and remains a member of the school’s board of trustees. In 2003 he was elected as a trustee of the National Health Museum, and serves on the boards of Medical Education for South African Blacks, Africare, Southern Center for International Studies, and Association for Academic Health Centers, and on the editorial board of Minority Health Today. He has also served on the boards of several national corporations.

In 2014 Sullivan published his autobiography, Breaking Bad Ground: My Life in Medicine, with the University of Georgia Press. In the book’s foreword, his friend Andrew Young notes that “Sullivan remains one of the medical world’s wisest and most inspirational public voices.”
And with that, here ends the month (plus extra Leap day!) of Black People doing cool shit that you didn’t know about probably because you have no idea how deep I had to dig for that fact.
See you next year kids! Or yannow, whenever I decide to write a “fancy” fact for y’all. Or myself.
Until then, anytime you’re looking for an interesting fact about shit Black folks have done that you didn’t know Black folks do, DO YOUR GOOGLES. The internet is FREEEEE!

*hey! Do you live in California? Check out Em’s workshit. And then maybe think about voting for it. Maybe. If you’re into that kinda thing.