Overview of the Item |
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| Repository: | The HistoryMakers | |
| 1900 S. Michigan Avenue | ||
| Chicago, Illinois 60616 | ||
| (312) 674-1900 | ||
| info@thehistorymakers.com | ||
| http://www.thehistorymakers.com | ||
| Interviewer: | Julieanna Richardson | |
| Videographer: | Scott Stearns | |
| Title: | Video Oral History Interview with Keith Black | |
| Dates: | April 21, 2004 | |
| Abstract: | (ABSTRACT) | |
| Quantity: | 6 Betacam SP videocassettes, 1 half-Hollinger box containing (NUMBER) folders of accompanying materials. | |
| Identification: | A2004.045 | |
| Language: | The interviews and records are in English | |
World-renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Keith Black was born in Tuskegee, Alabama on September 13, 1957. The younger of two sons born to Robert and Lillian Black, he developed at an early age a passion for science. His parents, noting his interests, encouraged him, and when he was in the third grade, his father brought home a cow's heart for him to dissect. While in eighth grade, the Black family moved to Ohio, and Black began spending time at the labs at Case Western University. In the tenth grade, young Black had developed enough surgical proficiency to perform his first organ transplant, conducted on a dog, and at seventeen, he wrote his first scientific paper on the damage artificial heart valves can do to red blood cells.
After high school, Black enrolled at the University of Michigan, and after only two years of undergraduate study, he was accepted into medical school in 1978. Black earned his M.D. from the University of Michigan in 1981, where he had begun his intense research into the brain and the nature of human consciousness. This search led him down a spiritual path, where he began to study the religions of the world, and ultimately led him to working to cure brain tumors.
By 1987, Black was the head of the Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program at the UCLA Medical Center, where he remained for the next ten years. In 1997, he became the director of the division of neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he remains today, and in 1998, he became the chairman of the department of neurological surgery as well as a professor at the University of California-Irvine. Over the years, his work has found him publishing hundreds of papers over the years, and he discovered a natural body peptide that helps deliver drugs to the brain to fight tumors.
Black has been instrumental in helping to raise money to fight cancer, and his push has been joined by many notables in Hollywood. Black's crusade against cancer, and his exceptional skill with the scalpel, have led to numerous honors for him, as well, including appearing on the cover of Time Magazine and Newsweek International. Esquire Magazine named him one of the "21 Most Important People of the 21st Century," and in 2001, he was presented with an Essence Award.
Dr. Black is also a devoted family man, despite performing 250 to 300 operations a year (the national average for brain surgeons is around 100). He reserves his weekends for spending time with his wife, fellow doctor Carol Bennett, and their children, Keith and Teal.
Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers®
This life oral history interview with Keith Black was conducted by Julieanna Richardson on 2004-04-21 in Los Angeles, California and is recorded on 6 30-minute Betacam SP videocassettes. Access copies exist on Betacam SP, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1. The interview contains information on (COMPLETE ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW). Accompanying materials in the collection include Keith Black's correspondence with The HistoryMakers® related to the interview; a copy of the signed release form and the production report; the biographical information used by the interviewer to prepare for the interview (DETAILS); paper copies of the interview transcripts, 3 1/2" floppy disks with electronic copies of the transcripts; selected quotes for video clips; photocopies of photographs captured on video; XML files with metadata created in editing and cataloguing the interview for The HistoryMakers Digital Video Library; and paper copies of these XML files.
Access to paper records is restricted. Other restrictions may be applied on a case-by-case basis.
All use of materials must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers® and appropriate credit must be given. All use credits must be pre-approved by The HistoryMakers®. Copyright is held by The HistoryMakers®.
Index Terms |
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| This record series is indexed under the following controlled access terms. | ||
| Contributors: | ||
| Black, Keith | ||
| Richardson, Julieanna | ||
| Stearns, Scott | ||
| Persons: | ||
| (PERSONS) | ||
| Corporate Bodies: | ||
| (CORPORATE BODIES) | ||
| Family Names: | ||
| Black | ||
| Places: | ||
| (PLACES) | ||
| Subjects: | ||
| (SUBJECTS) | ||
| Document Types: | ||
| Video oral history interview | ||
| Titles: | ||
| The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Keith Black | ||
Accompanying materials: Accompanying materials are filed in (NUMBER) folders in a half-Hollinger box and shelved at The HistoryMakers® Archives and Collection Library by accession number, separately from the videos.
Betacam, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1 access copies are held for in-house use at The HistoryMakers®; Betacam SP, VHS and DVD playback hardware is provided for in-house viewing of the access copies; MPEG-1 copies are searchable and viewable via a digital video database.
The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Keith Black, April 21, 2004. The HistoryMakers® African American Video Oral History Collection, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.