2024-03-01 11:29:54
The son of Lula Belle Stewart-Robinson — Michigan’s first Black woman pediatric cardiologist — told his mother’s story to Detroit City Council on Thursday.
Why it matters: A council committee gave unanimous support to create a designated historic district honoring Michael Robinson’s mother’s dedication to advancing health care equity.
- The full City Council is expected to make its final vote Tuesday.
Catch up quick: Stewart-Robinson saw patients out of her house in Detroit’s Petoskey-Otsego neighborhood starting in 1955 and grew an influential career in cardiology while serving patients who couldn’t pay.
- Her husband, educator and civil rights activist Phil Robinson, was her partner in these goals.
State of play: Michael Robinson and his siblings now aim to start a nonprofit with a base of operations at the home where Stewart-Robinson practiced.
- The designation brings opportunities to apply for grants, as well as symbolism of teaching the next generation about the past.
The intrigue: Council member Fred Durhal III said his first job was as a peer counselor at the Lula Belle Stewart Center, which was built in Stewart-Robinson’s name and became a national model for serving teens and expectant parents.
- “I saw lives transformed with my very own eyes at a young age,” Durhal said. “[Stewart-Robinson’s] legacy has continued to live on. … I am fully in support of this, I think it’s long overdue.”
What they’re saying: “It really gave me the opportunity to honor my mother and father in a way that let me research into their history,” Michael Robinson told Axios after the council hearing.
- He said that in her research for the historic district, city architectural historian Rebecca Savage found news articles with quotes from his mother that he’d never read.
- “I was blown away,” he said.
Go deeper: Read Dr. Stewart-Robinson’s story
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