Black medical students share message behind their photo at Louisiana slave plantation

Tulane Medical School students proudly and boldly showed their melanin matters while posing outside of The Whitney Plantation in Wallace, Louisiana, conveying a strong message that has resonated throughout the country.

Russell Joseph Ledet, who is standing on the steps in the photo, said it was important for the group to display to little boys and girls who look like everyone in the photograph that they too can become a doctor.

“It is our duty to illustrate to these babies that their role models wear white coats and treat people,” he said. “We used this opportunity to show the adversity in the past, present, and the adversity that we will have to overcome in the future.”

In a photo that has been retweeted more than 18,000 times and liked more than 76,000 as of Thursday afternoon, med student Sydney Labat tweeted, “We are truly our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

The students are members of The Student National Medical Association, which serves as an extension of the National Medical Association, an organization aimed at “promoting the themes of mutual support for medical students of color and advocating for the transformation of the medical teaching to include cultural sensitivity training in the instruction received by all students,” the students told McClatchy News.

Only 15 of their 65 members are in the photo.

In an ode to author Toni Morrison, student Rachel Trusty, who is pictured in the photograph, said it is important to remember those who came before and will come after you.

“Toni Morrison once said ‘I stood at the border, stood at the edge and claimed it as central. Claimed it as central, and let the rest of the world move over to where I was.’ It is this shift in narrative and focus on the stories of those who were enslaved at the Whitney Plantation (and beyond) that made our visit and experience transformative. To learn of their incredible resilience, strength and resistance was so empowering, and it is my only hope that we continue to make our ancestors proud and remember to pay it forward.”

Fellow medical student Christen Brown shares Trusty’s sentiments.

“I was reminded that though they were physically in bondage, our ancestors’ minds of ingenuity and spirits of perseverance couldn’t be contained,” Brown said. “Because of this, we as a people not only exist, but continue to thrive in spaces we were once told we weren’t capable of occupying. I am forever grateful to those who came before us, and I hope this photo inspires all who share in this legacy to keep striving, to keep serving, and to keep forging new paths for those yet to come.”

A viral photo isn’t what the 15 students are aiming for -- instead, creating long-lasting tangible representations of what is to come and what can be for brown kids who look like them is their goal.

“The idea now is to get this image printed,” Ledet said. “We are looking to have 100,000 copies framed and put up in classrooms nationwide.”

This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 2:59 PM.