Hailing from a poverty-stricken farming family in Arkansas, former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders didn’t see the inside of a doctor’s office until she was 16 years old. A few short years later, she was in medical school, exhibiting the drive and grit that would soon take her into office—where she would be the first Black female to hold the title of Surgeon General of the United States.

This daughter of sharecroppers was the valedictorian of her high school class, and went on to receive a Bachelor of Science in biology from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas. After a stint in the Army, she returned to medical school, which she completed in 1960.

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In office, Elders was known for her frank communication style and progressive views on sexuality and sexual health. She took many of her colleagues off guard with her insistence that schools make more of an effort to teach sex education, including destigmatizing masturbation. This, and her stance on drug legalization, proved to be too much even for then-President Bill Clinton to handle, and he asked her to resign in 1994.

Today, many of these opinions are regarded as the norm. Now, at age 86, Dr. Elders continues to fight for logic and justice by advocating for more Black physicians. After retiring, Elders returned to Little Rock, where she continues to speak out in support of people of color in the medical field, as well as the topics that led to her resignation in the 1990s.

Elders does not let retirement get in the way of her mission to educate youth about safe sex. She has referred to teaching about abstinence and the “Just Say No” campaign as myopic, and pushes for children to receive a proper education about drugs and sex from early adolescnece onwards. She has also been a staunch supporter of the push to legalize marijuana, stating, “I think we consume far more dangerous drugs that are legal: cigarette smoking, nicotine and alcohol ... I feel they cause much more devastating effects physically. We need to lift the prohibition on marijuana.”