Civil Rights History & Acupuncture
Some of the first Acupuncturists outside of the Asian community to practice acupuncture in the US were Civil Rights leaders.

From the Tolbert and Anola Small Papers via Eana Meng.

Dr. Tolbert Small
Dr. Tolbert Small was born in 1942 in Coldwater Mississippi. Growing up witnessing the healthcare disparities during Jim Crow and the systemic inequalities while living in Detroit, he dedicated his life to serving the people.
While attending the University of Detroit, he “Raised hell or high water” as the founding member of the school’s NAACP chapter and joined the National Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He obtained his medical degree from Wayne State School of Medicine
He later became the medical director for the Sickle Cell Anemia Research Center founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton. Dr. Small participated in helping screen and care for adults with Sickle Cell Anemia and was a major contributor in the advancement of Sickle Cell Disease research.
In 1972 Dr. Small was invited to the People’s Republic of China with a delegation of Black Panther party members acting as their medical director. While visiting, he was exposed to the health benefits of acupuncture and chose to pursue the training necessary to become an acupuncturist after he returned. He became the first US physician outside of the Asian American community to practice acupuncture. Among many accomplishments, he ran The George Jackson Free Medical Clinic and The Operation Reach Drug Detox Center. Later, he and his wife, Anola founded the Harriet Tubman Medical Clinic in Oakland, CA. He also treated BPP members in prison such as Angela Davis and George Jackson. He still maintains his medical practice to this day!
Read more in Grace Meng’s photo Essay.


Dr. Mutulu Shakur
The Young Lords and the Lincoln Detox Center
Dr. Mutulu Shakur was a Black liberation activist who obtained his doctorate of Acupuncture from the Quebec Association of Acupuncture. Dr. Shakur is credited with creating one of the most famous acupuncture detox protocols that is still practiced worldwide. In 1970, he helped open the first Acudetox center at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, after a coalition of activists joined the Young Lords in taking over the hospital to demand humane access to medical care. His clinic was the first of its kind in the US to address Methadone and Heroine addiction with the use of acupuncture, until the FBI intervened. Read more about the history here.
Mia Donovan produced a documentary about the Lincoln Hospital Detox Center which is available to watch on Youtube. A podcast of the same name is available on all podcast platforms.

Walter Basque
Walter Basque is a Puerto Rican activist who was part of the coalition of Black, Latiné, and Jewish activists that organized the takeover of Lincoln Hospital in 1970. He was also one of the first US citizens to graduate from the Quebec Association of Acupuncture alongside Mutulu Shakur.
Sharing the same disillusionment as his fellow activist about the devastating side effects of heroin and methadone in his community he helped create the Lincoln Detox Center with Mutulu Shakur.
For 45 years he has been offering acupuncture to marginalized communities in New York City and Puerto Rico after the Lincoln Detox Center was systematically dismantled by federal and state authorities, he continues to bring acupuncture to marginalized communities for the past 45 years.
Read more about him here.

Photo by Samantha Jensen
