Levi Watkins Jr. was on the frontlines of the complicated task of integrating the Vanderbilt Medical School. He was reared in Montgomery, Ala., where he excelled in both the classroom and in athletics. Dr. Ralph was his minister of the Baptist Church he attended, and he introduced Watkins to Martin Luther King, Jr. I first met Levi in 2008 when we both were on the Vanderbilt Board of Trustees. Watkins and other leaders worked hard during that time between 2009 and 2011 to provide an increasingly welcoming environment, and in that time 47 MD degrees were awarded to African-Americans.
King had a profound and enduring effect on the young Watkins. At Tennessee State University in Nashville, he continued to excel in the classroom and developed political interests, becoming president of the student body. His Vanderbilt Medical School experience was not easy. He felt isolated. No other African-Americans were admitted during his four years. Although the treatment from his classmates and faculty was satisfactory and sometimes exemplary, he was uncomfortable enough to avoid eating with his classmates in the cafeteria. There were regrettable and distressing instances. The extraordinary national events, including widespread rioting after the assassination of his idol Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, did not result in any adverse experiences — aside from personal grief — for Watkins. He decided to seek a Hopkins-Halstead internship and was strongly encouraged and supported by H. William Scott, the chair of surgery and part of the Connection.
Although he found Hopkins an easier environment, he felt a continued underlying current prejudice, according to a history written by Gottlieb Christian Friesinger II, M.D., called The Connection: The Shared History of Johns Hopkins and Vanderbilt Hospitals. However, he moved through the training program and became the first African-American to be the Halstead resident in surgery. He took an academic appointment and had his entire career at Hopkins. He participated in a variety of successful research activities, particularly in the development of the dramatically successful internal automatic cardiac defibrillator. He received particular support from Hopkins dean Richard Ross. His work on the admissions committee and as associate dean for postdoctoral affairs provided him the platform to enhance recruitment of African-Americans.
Vanderbilt recognized Watkins’ enormous contributions in integrating the medical school as well as his later successes by naming him Distinguished Alumnus in 2008 and appointed him to the university board of trustees in the medical school. They also created a new deanship called the Levin Watkins Dean of Diversity in 2002, and an additional annual lecture bears his name.