Adventist HealthCare leaders unveil scholarships and portrait

ecember 10, 2021 was a momentous day for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Adventist HealthCare (AHC) and distinguished Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), as the life and legacy of Lucille “Lucy” Byard was both recognized and honored. Lucy Byard was a black Seventh-day Adventist member who was turned away by the Washington Sanitarium in 1943 because of the color of her skin. At the December event Adventist HealthCare leaders unveiled a commissioned portrait of Byard, as well as a series of significant scholarships in her name that will benefit nursing students at each of three universities.

Lucy Byard was a devout Adventist woman who by 1943 had developed liver cancer together with cachexia, known also as “wasting disease.” Wishing to be treated in an Adventist hospital, Byard traveled with her husband James from her home in Long Island to Washington Sanitarium in Takoma Park, Maryland—the first of the hospitals that now make up the Adventist HealthCare system.

As told through the work of Adventist author and historian Benjamin Baker, upon arrival, staff members of the Washington Sanitarium became aware of the fact that Lucy was black. It was determined that because of the color of Lucy’s skin, she could not receive the care she needed at Washington Sanitarium and she was transferred to Freedman’s Hospital (now Howard University Hospital), approximately six miles away, where she was treated. Lucy Byard died some 38 days later.

For Terry Forde, president and CEO of Adventist HealthCare, learning that a black woman had been turned away from a healthcare facility he now led, was both eye-opening and heartbreaking. August 12, 2016 was “a day I always will remember,” shared Forde. “I learned that our mission…wasn’t able to reach everyone in 1943. I realized I needed to better understand how health inequities still exist today, and to contemplate what collectively we can do to improve physical, mental and spiritual healing for all.”

The committee’s work resulted in the commission of an original portrait of Byard and a series of three scholarships in the name of Lucy Byard for outstanding nursing students with limited financial means. In the scholarships’ inaugural year, 2022, Adventist HealthCare will work closely with three universities, Oakwood University, Washington Adventist University and Howard University to identify candidates. Each scholarship will fund the last two years of nursing school.

The commissioned portrait was painted by Simmie Knox, the first black artist commissioned to paint an official portrait of a sitting U.S. president—Bill Clinton—as well as notables such as Thurgood Marshall, Henry (Hank) Aaron, Oprah Winfrey and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Byard’s portrait will be on permanent display at the new White Oak Medical Center in the most highly trafficked area of the hospital. Knox was present for the unveiling.

Painting from the only two low resolution pictures of Byard, Knox explained that he had to read the shadows to bring Lucy Byard and her story to light. “It’s the details that create a portrait. Portraits make a special statement. They say you are special. And this portrait, I think, will be viewed and in a place where it will be seen by many. And I think it’s a moment of healing.”

One of several notable guests, Pete Palmer, president of the Allegheny East Conference, expressed affirmation to Adventist HealthCare “for honoring this woman of God and providing this scholarship and…for this opportunity to not only acknowledge the painfulness of our past, but just as importantly, or maybe even more importantly, to thank God for the future we are forging together.”

Corinne Kuypers-Denlinger, writes for Adventist HealthCare