Dr. Dezra White
Dr. Dezra White was born in 1941 in Beaumont, Texas. He spent his childhood around three uncles who were physicians, Drs. Edward, Curtis, and Maxie Sprott, and was inspired by their service to Beaumont’s black population. His oldest uncle, Dr. Edward Sprott, started the first black hospital in the town, and Dr. White remembers going as a child with his cousin to watch his uncles at work through the windows on the backside of the hospital’s operating room. His close relationship with his uncles and the experience he had growing up of seeing their hard work, providing health care to members of his community, enticed Dr. White early on to pursue a career in medicine. Additionally, Dr. Herman Barnett influenced his decision to be a physician. Barnett, the first black graduate from University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, met and married his older sister before White had even finished high school. Dr. Barnett was already practicing medicine at that time and became somewhat of a big brother figure and role model in White’s life.
After graduating from high school in Beaumont, he went to Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, where he studied under the school’s reputable pre-med program and was guided toward enrolling in the right courses and making the grades necessary for being accepted into medical school. From Morehouse, Dr. White came back to Texas to UTMB in Galveston. He received his doctorate in medicine there and moved to Houston, first to intern in Ob/Gyn at St. Joseph Hospital and then to complete his residency there for the next three years. He took the Medical Board Examination and became Board Certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Dr. White began practicing medicine in 1972 and has remained in Houston ever since that time.
Dr. White decided to make his career in Houston for several reasons. By doing his training at St. Joseph, he was able to get a feel for the people in his field, began to develop a rapport and relationship with the other doctors practicing there, and was impressed by the opportunities available to him in Houston as a black physician. Since Dr. White’s uncles were physicians in nearby Beaumont, he knew many of the core group of older black doctors in the city, and his brother-in-law, Dr. Barnett, who was an anesthesiologist, encouraged him to stay and practice in Houston. He first joined a group medical practice with Dr. Blanchard Hollins and Dr. Lord in the professional building that accompanied Lockwood Hospital, a community hospital on Lockwood Drive. Around 2002, Dr. White went into practice by himself and works out of St. Joseph Medical Plaza on Crawford Street near downtown Houston. He chose that particular office because of its close proximity to St. Joseph Hospital, where he delivers babies regularly, as well as its central location within the city.
Dr. White maintains active membership with the Houston Medical Forum and is serving as Member-at-Large for 2005. He believes strongly in the organization’s role in bringing African-American professionals in the medical field together to network among colleagues and to foster ways to better serve their community. Dr. White says his focus is to be professional in everything that he does, in hopes that his actions, his career accomplishments, and his civic involvement will influence the younger African-American generation in a positive manner. He holds membership in and contributes through service and financial support to several other groups outside of the medical field, including: the Morehouse College Houston Alumni Association; Brookhollow Baptist Church; the United Negro College; The Ensemble Theater, a predominantly black performing arts center; and Five-A (African American Art Advisory Association) at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Although he has faced challenges along the way as a minority in his profession, Dr. White has witnessed many positive changes in the opportunities that have become available for black physicians over time. With a little self-motivation, initiative, and drive, he says, the younger African-American generation has more potential today than ever before to pursue goals of going to medical school, earning a degree, and becoming a successful leader in the field.
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