Elmer Dixon Speaks at National Dental Association Convention

Recently Elmer Dixon, one of the cofounders of the Seattle chapter of the Black Panther Party, was invited to speak at the National Dental Association Convention in Kansas City, a natural collaboration given the history and aims of those two historically impactful organizations. Per the National Dental Association’s website, “for over 100 years, the NDA has been a national forum for minority dentists and a leader in advancing their rights within the dental profession, the armed services, the government, and the private sector.” The history of the NDA and similar organizations, including the National Medical Association (and any number of other ‘national’ professional organizations), offers a crucial window into one of many forms of marginalization experienced by Black Americans and how they chose to respond - usually by creating an organization that would address the needs of their communities instead of bargaining for access from a group who did not accept them in the first place. While the earliest versions of these groups would begin out of necessity and exclusion, “the black professional associations that came up in the 1960s saw themselves as ‘technical support for the black liberation movement’.” (Bell, Joyce M. “Re-Envisioning Black Power.” In The Black Power Movement and American Social Work, 25–44. Columbia University Press, 2014.) 

This second wave of Black professional organizations corresponded with a significant shift in the balance of leading philosophies in the ongoing fight for civil rights in the 1960s and 70s after a series of political assassinations; Joyce Bell, associate professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, notes that self-determination and empowerment became leading priorities above access and legitimacy within broader American society for Black Americans. She goes on to assert “Black professional associations (founded on the basis of resistance to racism and community improvement) are a direct outcome of the Black Power movement. In many ways, their patterns of emergence, structures, and general form reflected the shift from civil rights to Black Power politics and fit right into the larger history of black liberation movements in the United States. (Bell, p. 30) The widespread creation of these organizations represents a particular political philosophy at a moment in time that helped support and was influenced by the actions of the Black Panthers: creating robust community institutions dedicated to acknowledging, resisting, and reducing the external and internal pressures of their communities’ marginalization. 

Indeed, when opportunities emerged to join pre-existing (predominantly) white professional organizations, Black professionals elected to form their own associations and enact change both in their communities and their profession at large. “As desegregation became law, by the rise of the Black Power movement, the dominant political expression among African Americans, was centered on the establishment, support, and celebration of black institutions. In the National Society of Black Engineers, the National Association of Black Journalists, and the Congressional Black Caucus, for example, black professionals who enjoyed unprecedented access to white professional organizations had established black ones between 1966-1975.” (Alton Hornsby, Jr., A Short History of Black Atlanta, 1847-1990 (Atlanta: APEX Museum, 2003), 70.) 

It is evident that these organizations have a legacy and history of promoting Black interests, mainly via focusing on issues central to communities which often go underserved by the broader nation. The National Dental Association’s purpose, as stated on its website, includes the following: “Establish the NDA as the vanguard of oral health in communities of color; Perpetuate the tradition and upgrade the stature of African American dentists in service to the minority community; Increase the number of minorities in dentistry in areas of private practice, academia, administration, research, health policy, media advocacy and the armed services.” It is imperative to remember and recognize the legacy of the revolutionary and profound struggle of Black Americans who mobilized for change for their communities in the way they thought was best. The social organizations and physical sites which serve as tangible reminders of the immediacy of America’s hateful past and present form an essential portion of the landscape of American society. This landscape is covered with evidence of marginalization and abuse met with courageous organization, direct community action, and the creation of structures of implicit power - political, professional, or otherwise -  yet there are many in the United States who would prefer to live in ignorance of their nation’s past and choose not to address the many inequities of the state. The Seattle BPP Legacy group and initiatives like the Interpretive and Research Center exist to confront the public and ask hard questions to start transformative conversations, and the first step in that process is awareness of our past.

Elmer Dixon’s message to the dentists and communities which they served was one of maintaining hope and resilience. The Black Panthers embodied the value of resistance regardless of the odds and forces arrayed against them, organizing and acting on behalf of their communities under threat of assassination, police brutality, jailing, and more, and Elmer connected his chapter’s efforts, especially in organizing community aid programs and establishing a health clinic for those in need, to the ongoing efforts of the National Dental Association to bring care to underserved areas and populations within the United States in a turbulent political atmosphere. Elmer directly confronted the proliferation of regressive, reactionary, racist political discourse, saying that while it may seem like a dangerous force to stop or attempt to simply openly oppose, false consciousness and defeatism only serve to exacerbate these problems, not begin to resolve them. Change isn’t impossible; indeed, Elmer labels arch-regressive/reactionary/racist Donald Trump as a paper tiger, but it does take community and new methods due to the transformation of technology since the Black Panther Party was operational; Elmer pointed to the example of filming police officers instead of patrolling behind them with guns to ensure accountability. We here at the Seattle BPP Legacy Group hope to bring more historical context to discussions taking place in the present; stay tuned for more articles like this one that help reveal just how close the past and present are to each other to help the public better understand their society and country.