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FAMILY PLANNING
by Debbi Newton
EDITORIAL
by Debbi Newton
From their inceptions black colleges have
withstood well the tests of their times. Moveover,
they have successfully comprehended their roles
in affirming the genius of fertile young minds
sown in the soil of the nation’s black belt.
Originating in the south and established for
the dual purpose of integrating blacks into the
American mainstream and the liberating of a
slave-ridden consciousness, these academic
institutions have aided in proliferating the
standards of expectations within the black
community. Such institutions are Atlanta
University, Morehouse College, Spelman College,
Clark College, Morris Brown College, Fisk
University, Howard University, Shaw University,
Bennett College, Tuskeegee Institute, Bishop
College, Wiley College, Florida A & M University,
Xavier University, Wilberforce University, Morgan
State College, Tougaloo College, Lincoln
University, Claflin College, Cheyney State
College, Knoxville College, Hampton Institute,
and a host of others.
Rendering over a century of unequitable
service to black people, these colleges and
universities remain today as monuments to the
past, present, and future of all black people
wherever they exist throughout the diaspora.
Despite post-ware migrations of blacks to
northern cities, the enrollment of northern
students in black colleges and universities
continues to soar; with total enrollment of
non-southern students as high as thirty per cent
in some of these institutions of higher learning
and as much as forty-five to fifty per cent in still
others. A number of these students reside in
poverty stricken and congested metropolitan
areas. However, they come from all over the
United States, from the teaming ghettoes of New
York, Chicago, Detroit, and as far west as
California, Oklahoma, Seattle, and Oregon, some
of whom, without the aid received from Black
colleges, may have never been given the
opportunity to “Stop the clock and seize the
time.”
The returns to the black community from
predominantly Negro colleges and universities are
very significant—Julian Bond, Martin Luther
King, Jr., Andrew Young, Maynard Jackson, to
name a few. Approximately seventy-five per cent
of the successful blacks in the nation graduated
from predominantly black colleges and
universities.
Today, the struggle to maintain these symbols
of black culture has metamorphosed into an
overwhelming inflationary threat. The
contributions of the federal government and the
commitments of corporate foundations have been
steadily on the decline. Black institutions of
higher learning are receiving less and less of the
apples that constitute the economy of the
American pie.
Black people have a right to administrate,
facilitate, and attend black colleges and
universities, but “Every right implies a
responsibility.” Therefore, as a people, we are
responsible for maintaining the institutions that
define the strengths of our heritage, that
illuminate our past and that thrust us into our
future.
As we gather together with family and friends
this Thanksgiving Day 1974, let us recall our
historical Models of progression. Support the
United Negro College Fund. And give thanks.
The following is part two of a three part
series exploring the services and facilities offered
by the family planning clinic of the Atlanta
University Center. The clinic is located on the
Spelman College campus. Part two is an interview
with the clinic’s nurse clinician, Ms. Judith
Gordon Tate. Ms. Gordon, a native of Kansas,
received her B.S. degree in nursing from the
University of Colorado and a M.S. in adult
psychiatric nursing from Wayne State University
in Detroit, Michigan.
“Right now we’re seeing a lot of patients
coming in with vaginitis infection” stated Ms.
Judith Gordon Tate, the A.U. Center's family
planning nurse clinician. Ms. Gordon, who is still
in training at the Emory Medical School for the
position she now holds in the family planning
clinic, performs the female examinations in the
clinic and most of the same functions as does the
clinic’s physician, she said.
According to Ms. Gordon, after she has
completed her training she will be qualified to
insert I.U.D.’s (intra-uterine devices); perform
pelvic and breast examinations; prescribe
different types of birth control pills; and treat
vaginal infections that do not require surgery.
Ms. Gordon said that vaginitis, highly
infectious, is due in most part to a yeast
infection or a parasitic infection such as
trichomonus. “You can pick it up from towels
and clothing; and if bathroom facilities are not
adequately sterilized or cleansed, it can be picked
up in this manner,” she said. “There have been
cases where whole floors of dorms, or maybe a
whole dorm has had outbreaks of vaginitis,” the
nurse stated. Heavy discharge, itching, and
burning during urination are some symptoms of
vaginal disorders, according to Ms. Gordon.
Not only is the clinic prepared to treat any
degree of venereal disease, they also counsel and
disseminate abortion information. The abortion
TIME TO BREAK
LOOSE!
by Debra Annette Rucker
Three hundred years of waiting, and we are still
waiting.
Three hundred years of lynching, marching, and
praying and we are still waiting.
Three hundred years of having dreams, and
climbing to the mountain top,
And we are still climbing, yet tripping.
WAKE UP NIGGERS, IT’S REVOLUTION
TIME, NATION TIME, FREE YOUR MIND!
Do you want it to be three hundred more years
of yassah, and nassah?
Well, get on up and work, educate yourself, so
you can say RIGHT ON! and
Have a meaning behind what you are saying.
We can’t make it to the top with VALLEY
HIGH, COLD DUCK, AND HOT CHICKEN.
Waking up with Excedrin Headache no. 257 ain’t
gonna get your Daddy off the
Garbage truck and behind the desk, neither will
it get your momma out of
Mrs. Ann’s kitchen and into Spelman College.
Malcolm, Martin, Frederick, W.E.B., and Elijah
all did their thang;
How’s about doing yours?
“I think” just ain’t good enough. How about
“Let’s try plan A.”
Talk is cheap. It takes REVOLUTION!
BREAK LOOSE AND MAKE YOUR CHANGE!
clinics that students are referred to by family
planning have been thoroughly investigated by
both Ms. Gordon and Ms. Doris Me Little, the
director of the center’s family planning clinic.
These clinics have been found, in their own
professional opinions, to be “medically and
ethically sound,” affirmed Ms. Gordon. A
number of these clinics offer deferred payment
plans stated the nurse clinician.
The clinic offers all kinds of contraceptives:
intra-uterine devices, diaphragms, jellies, foams,
and condems. Patients are also informed about
rhythm and withdrawal methods, stated Ms.
Gordon. Medical histories and pelvic
examinations are closely analyzed prior to the
prescription of contraceptive devices, she added.
Medical records are kept on file for at least
two years after students terminate their visits to
the clinic. “We keep them on file just for
statistical purposes and analyze what types of
patients we’ve seen, what types of conditions
we’ve treated, and after a two year period they
are disposed of,” stated Ms. Gordon.
According to Ms. Gordon, there has been
some experimentation in temporary occlusion of
the vas deferens by a clamp instead of having a
vasectomy. The clamp would be inserted into the
testicles and kept in place for as long as the man
wanted to remain sterile. “And of course, they
are still working on the pill for the male,” she
added.
When asked to assess the impact of family
planning within the Atlanta University Center,
Ms. Gordon replied: “I hope that it will be a
long ranging impact as the student goes out into
her professional, social, and private life.
Hopefully, the education that she has gained
within the college setting will greatly influence;
and part of that education is education in human
sexuality and family planning,” concluded the
nurse.
Spelman Spotlight
Staff
Amelia K. Hamilton
Editor
Debbi Newton
Associate Editor
Jacquelyn R. Hall
Cornelia Edwards
Business Managers
Mary Henley
Leslie Henderson
Advertising Managers
Shelia Venson
Photographer
Vicki “Acie” Poole
Literary Editor
Sylvia Wofford
Circulation Manager
Marian Cobb
News Editor
Ms. Beverly Sheftall
Advisor
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