Delta Sigma Theta’s Joycelyn Elders Was the First Black U.S. Surgeon General

Did you know that the first African American to serve as U.S. Surgeon General is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.? Her name is Dr. Joycelyn Elders, and her journey from a family of sharecroppers in rural Arkansas to the nation’s top public health post is one of remarkable determination.

Minnie Joycelyn Elders was born in 1933 in the small town of Schaal, Arkansas. She earned a scholarship to Philander Smith College, the historically Black college in Little Rock, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1952. It was at Philander Smith that she was initiated into Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. through the Gamma Gamma Chapter.

After serving in the U.S. Army, Elders enrolled at the University of Arkansas Medical School, earning her M.D. in 1960 and later a master’s degree in biochemistry in 1967. She built a distinguished career as a pediatric endocrinologist, rising through the ranks to become a full professor at the University of Arkansas.

In 1987, Governor Bill Clinton appointed Elders to lead the Arkansas Department of Health, a role she held until 1992. Then, in 1993, President Clinton appointed her U.S. Surgeon General. According to the National Library of Medicine, she was sworn in on September 10, 1993, becoming the first African American and only the second woman to lead the U.S. Public Health Service.

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. was founded at Howard University in 1913 by twenty-two collegiate women dedicated to scholarship and public service. Elders carried that same spirit into a lifetime of advocacy for children’s health and public health education.

From the Gamma Gamma Chapter at Philander Smith College to the office of the Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders opened a door in American medicine and public health that no Black woman had walked through before her.