83R14234 STE-D
 
  By: Miles H.R. No. 800
 
 
 
R E S O L U T I O N
         WHEREAS, Dr. Edith Irby Jones has devoted her life to serving
  others, and the achievements of this trailblazing physician, civil
  rights advocate, and humanitarian are truly deserving of
  recognition; and
         WHEREAS, Born in 1927 to an Arkansas sharecropper and a
  domestic worker, Dr. Jones was inspired to become a physician after
  her older sister died during a typhoid epidemic in the 1930s; she
  realized then that medical care was essential to the survival of
  sick children and that poverty adversely affected the ability of
  many families, including her own, to pay for lifesaving treatment;
  and
         WHEREAS, Dr. Jones's overwhelming desire to prevent similar
  tragedies eventually led her to the University of Arkansas College
  of Medicine, where she became the first African American woman to be
  admitted; she later became the first African American woman
  resident at Baylor College of Medicine and the first female elected
  president of the National Medical Association; and
         WHEREAS, After earning her degree in 1952, Dr. Jones
  established a successful career in Arkansas; she also took up the
  cause of civil rights and worked with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
  and other leaders of the movement; as a member of the "Freedom
  Four," she traveled the Deep South, speaking at homes and churches,
  urging people to join the struggle for justice and equality; and
         WHEREAS, In 1962, Dr. Jones set up a private practice in
  Houston's Third Ward, a practice she maintained for six decades;
  later in the 1960s, she joined other African American physicians in
  founding Mercy Hospital, which served impoverished patients in the
  southeast part of the city; during the course of her career,
  Dr. Jones held privileges at a number of Houston hospitals, served
  as chief of staff at Riverside General Hospital, and served as a
  clinical assistant professor of medicine at Baylor College of
  Medicine and at The University of Texas Health Science Center at
  Houston; she has also established medical clinics in Haiti and
  Mexico and consulted on health care in numerous other countries;
  and
         WHEREAS, Admired and respected by her peers, Dr. Jones has
  received many prestigious accolades; the American Society of
  Internal Medicine named her Internist of the Year in 1988, and in
  2001, she was presented with the Oscar E. Edwards Memorial Award for
  Volunteerism and Community Service by the ASIM and the American
  College of Physicians; she has been inducted into the Hall of Fame
  at the University of Arkansas College of Medicine, and she is the
  recipient of honorary doctoral degrees from Missouri Valley
  College, Mary Holmes College, Lindenwood University, and Knoxville
  College; the City of Houston honored her in 1986 with Edith Irby
  Jones Day, and the former Southeast Memorial Hospital named its
  ambulatory center in her honor; a charter member of Physicians for
  Human Rights, Dr. Jones was nominated as a Local Legend by U.S.
  Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, in conjunction with a National
  Library of Medicine program highlighting women who have made
  enduring contributions to the medical profession; and
         WHEREAS, Dr. Edith Jones is a skilled and compassionate
  healer who demonstrated exemplary courage in breaking through
  racial and gender barriers, and her unwavering commitment to
  providing health care to those in need has had a positive impact on
  the lives of countless individuals; now, therefore, be it
         RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 83rd Texas
  Legislature hereby commend Dr. Edith Irby Jones for her exceptional
  contributions to medicine and the advancement of racial equality
  and extend to her sincere best wishes for the future; and, be it
  further
         RESOLVED, That an official copy of this resolution be
  prepared for Dr. Jones as an expression of high regard by the Texas
  House of Representatives.