Practicing Folk Medicine Part 1
Naturopath Jesse Mae Newsome holding sassafras roots in White Springs, Florida, Courtesy of the Florida Memory Project
I have been researching and writing about Naturopath Dr. Alvenia Fulton (1893-1999) since I saw her speak at Howard University about 1990. Historically the American Medical Association (AMA) as actively opposed the US Naturopathy movement. AMA members experimented on African-American patients and did not have practitioners of color among its leaders for a long time. Black folks tended to use the folk traditions passed down through oral histories and those called within their communities as healers, like Dr. Alvenia Fulton's mother, and or those African Americans who had the opportunity to train at HBCUs medical and nursing schools like Meharry Medical College to meet their health care needs.
