Black History Month: Acupuncture and the Black Panther Party

Drs. Small (L) and Shakur (R). Photo origin: Of Part and Parcel.

February is Black History Month!

Historian Eana Meng has put together a website called Of Part and Parcel, documenting her research into the revolutionary origins of acupuncture in the United States, and highlighting the contributions of the Black Panther Party and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, who introduced acupuncture for substance detoxification in New York City in the early 1970s. (Dr. Shakur is from Baltimore!) Dr. Tolbert Small helped bring acupuncture to the West coast at the same time.

Without knowing it at the time, I participated in this legacy as a part of my own acupuncture training in the early 2000s. So if you have been to Very Well for acupuncture, you, too, owe a debt to this history. I urge you to look at the whole story, starting with clicking on the link above.

—David