DISCOVER

Black Medical Students Pose for Powerful Picture Outside Old Slave Quarters

By MyReligionIsRapAdmin

Posted on December 20, 2019

Second year medical student Russell Ledet decided to put together a trip to the Whitney Plantation in St. John the Baptist Parish of Louisiana along with his fellow Black medical students to take pictures in front of the plantation’s former slave quarters. The pictures have since has since gone viral. In an interview with NPR, Ledet explained the intention behind the photos, stating,

“I wanted this photo to just show: We’re here. This place is meant to destroy us. This place is meant to devalue us. But we here.”

Fellow medical student Sydney Labat also tweeted out a message of another photo of the group, stating, “Standing in front of the slave quarters of our ancestors, at The Whitney Plantation, with my medical school classmates. We are truly our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.✨

In the background, an original slave quarter.
In the foreground, original descendants of slaves and medical students. #whatatimetobealive #yeahwecandoboth pic.twitter.com/INOUMmc1cx

— Russell Joseph Ledet, Ph.D. (@theguywithyes) December 14, 2019

Ledet also told NPR, “We were two African American males getting our Ph.D.s at NYU School of Medicine. There just aren’t that many of us out there. We wanted to make sure that we remain tied to our history and remain humble, you know, and understand whose shoulders we’re climbing on — and pay homage.”