Lovell A. Jones' recollections, in a September 16, 2017 email to Patricia Mathews-Juarez, Pamela M. Jackson, and Victor Schoenbach (edited 1/18/2019 by Victor Schoenbach). See also Lovell Jones, PhD, Oral History Interview, January 30, 2014, MD Anderson Historical Resources Center. Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD, Interviewer | Jones,L_03_20140130. In: The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, http://library.mdanderson.org/ohms-viewer/viewer.php?cachefile=Jones,L_03_20140130.xml#segment2931 (Dr. Jones' full 7.5 hour interview is at http://mdanderson.libguides.com/JonesLA.)
In 1985, the Report of the Secretary's Task Force on Black & Minority Health (the "Heckler Report") was released. Dr. Louis Sullivan was on the National Cancer Advisory Board (NCAB) and was pushing the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to do something in response to the report. At the same time, I began the ground work to launch the Biennial Symposium on Minorities, which became the Biennial Symposium on Minorities, the Medically Underserved and Cancer. NCAB agreed to hold six regional fact-finding meetings/summits under the name of the National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer (NBLIC). To launch the initiative, Dr. Sullivan tapped Morehouse alumni and National Medical Association (NMA) members in six cities: Los Angeles - Dr. M. Alfred Haynes; Chicago - Dr. Clyde Phillips; New York - Dr. Harold Freeman; Washington, D.C. - Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr.; Atlanta - Dr. Haynes; and Houston - Dr. Dezra White. Because Dr. White was not at an academic institution and because of my role in creating the Biennial Symposium, Dr. White approached me to co-chair the Houston summit and to do so under the banner of MD Anderson.
The rest is history. Involvement of MD Anderson conveyed a certain status to the meetings/summits. After the six meetings/summits, we met with Dr. Alan Rabson, Acting Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). We gave him the report and asked what would be the next steps. When he basically said nothing, I remember Clyde Phillips saying, "I can't leave your office and go back to Chicago with nothing. That triggered a sit-in. All of us agreed that we couldn't go back without some formal commitment. The end result was supplemental funds to the Drew-Meharry-Morehouse Consortium Cancer Center to create six NBLIC Regions to address community cancer prevention and control needs. When Anderson got its award without any indirect costs, Dr. Jim Bowen called the NCI grants office and asked this question, is this just a “Black grant” or a regular NCI grant? Because if it is the latter, where are our indirect costs? As a result, MD Anderson received indirect costs as did all of the other sites.
In 1992, I led the writing of the renewal, with Ms. Pamela Jackson, Dr. Janice Chilton and Dr. Patricia Matthews Juarez, for the NBLIC through 1995. During that time, the National Hispanic Leadership Initiative on Cancer, the Appalachia Leadership Initiative on Cancer, the Asian Leadership Initiative on Cancer, and the Native American Leadership Initiative on Cancer grew out of the NBLIC efforts. I would say that if it had not been for the NBLIC, the NCI Special Populations Network and, ultimately, the NCI Center for Research on Cancer Health Disparities might not have been created.
Some relevant links:
NBLIC RFA: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-92-010.html
NHLIC RFA: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-92-009.html
ALIC RFA: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-92-011.html
RFA: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-CA-99-003.html Special Populations Network for Cancer Awareness Research and Training
The Unequal Burden of Cancer: An Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Cancer Research Among Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Haynes MA, Smedley BD, eds. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1999. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1796/