Tracing the historical impact of LaSalle Leffall’s mentorship

By FYH News Team

Published on February 25, 2022

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Black History Month

As guest editor of the Cancer History Project during Black History Month, Robert A. Winn, director of VCU Massey Cancer Center, chose to focus on the contributions of Black doctors and scientists to the development of oncology.

Winn, with John H. Stewart, founding director of LSU Health/LCMC Health Cancer Center, conducted a series of oral history interviews with Black leaders in oncology, which are available as a video, podcast, and transcript through the Cancer History Project.

A Black History Month panel discussion titled “The evolution of the health equity movement” is available here.

Last year’s Black History Month coverage, also edited by Winn, is highlighted here.

“We all wanted to be like LaSalle D. Leffall”

The following interviews spanned career milestones, the impact of systemic racism, the genesis of the health equity movement—and the crucial role of mentorship. In a time when young Black doctors had few Black mentors, LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., the Charles R. Drew Professor of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine, was a giant. Each oncologist Winn spoke with describes Leffall’s career-defining mentorship.

Quote of the week

When I say emulate excellence, LaSalle D. Leffall was the chair of surgery there. We all wanted to be like LaSalle D. Leffall. I think that many of his habits still resonate with me today.

John Stewart

Wayne Frederick: Dr. Leffall, in many ways, I think, went above and beyond just being a mentor. That shaped me in terms of my own experience being a father and my relationships with my 17-year-old son and my 15-year-old daughter. So much of this comes from that same attention to detail he put into my relationship.

We never started any conversation without him asking me how I was doing. How’s the family doing, et cetera. It doesn’t matter what the topic of the discussion was. The gravity of what you had been through, discussions always started that way.

Harold Freeman: I didn’t like cancer. From childhood, I didn’t like it. I wanted to do something about it. And then another part of that was I trained in general surgery at Howard University under Burke Syphax—you may know that name. And LaSalle D. Leffall, who was really inspiring to me at that time. I found that I wanted to see if I could carry my skill level further like LaSalle had done, and Jack White before him, both at Howard university.

Edith Mitchell: There were not many Black physicians, but I was mentored, Rob, by lots of people. […] I did not have a Black woman doctor at that time, but later in my career, I had mentorship from many women, many Blacks, including Dr. LaSalle Leffall. I never attended Howard, however, I met Dr. Leffall at a National Medical Association meeting. He was a great mentor for me.

Leffall in the archives

Edith Mitchell: It is with great sadness that I share the recent passing of an oncology icon, Dr. LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr. As said by Dr. Wayne Frederick, a mentee, surgical oncologist, and president of Howard University, “He was a surgeon par excellence, oncologist, medical educator, civic leader, and mentor to me and so many others.”

I, too, was fortunate to be mentored by Leffall, who not only taught me about cancer, but also how to deliver the message to others. He was never too busy to talk and provided his cell phone number for me to call whenever I needed.

Walter Lawrence, founding director of Virginia Commonwealth University Cancer Center, in an interview published in August 2020, discussed his resignation from the Southern Surgical Association in protest against that organization’s refusal to admit LaSalle Leffall, Jr. Lawrence rejoined the association years later, only after Leffall was admitted.

Lawrence died Nov. 9, 2021, at 96. His obituary appears here.

An excerpt from the conversation appears below:

Walter Lawrence: LaSalle happened to get his training at Memorial when I was a junior doctor, so I started training him, sort of, but we became mainly friends over the years, and due to LaSalle, and a number of other members of [The Society of Black Academic Surgeons] that I was friends with, to be nice to me, they made me an honorary member.

Naturally, if you get to be an honorary member, you better go to the meeting every year, and it was very worthwhile, because they’re a wonderful group of people, and continue to be, and it’s quite a national organization that I’m proud of being an honorary member of.

Recent contribution

This column features the latest posts to the Cancer History Project by our growing list of contributors.

The Cancer History Project is a free, web-based, collaborative resource intended to mark the 50th anniversary of the National Cancer Act and designed to continue in perpetuity. The objective is to assemble a robust collection of historical documents and make them freely available.

Access to the Cancer History Project is open to the public at CancerHistoryProject.com. You can also follow us on Twitter at @CancerHistProj, or follow our podcast.

Is your institution a contributor to the Cancer History Project? Eligible institutions include cancer centers, advocacy groups, professional societies, pharmaceutical companies, and key organizations in oncology.

To apply to become a contributor, please contact admin@cancerhistoryproject.com.

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