“Medicine was part and parcel of this broader commitment and picture,” emphasized Dr. David Levinson, “and that was to transform society.”

I met Dr. Levinson in February 2019 at a Pete’s Coffee in Emeryville, California. I was one month away from my undergraduate senior thesis deadline, and I had very little written. I knew it was meant to be about integrative medicine, but nothing I had written felt quite right. Then, I stumbled upon an Atlantic article about the Black Panther Party’s use of acupuncture. Intrigued, I asked my thesis advisor, Professor Shigehisa Kuriyama, if this history was in academic scholarship. It was not.

I scavenged the internet and found Dr. Tolbert Small’s website. Trained at Wayne State Medical School, Dr. Small had gone on a trip to China in 1972 with the BPP and taught himself acupuncture upon returning home. He’s been practicing ever since alongside his general clinical work. I found his email, and tried my luck. Within minutes, I got a response from Dr. Small: “Call me.” Soon, I found myself flying across the country to meet Dr. Small. I also met with Dr. Levinson, who was twenty when he went to China with the BPP delegation. It was a quick 36 hour trip, but by its end, I knew I had found not only my thesis topic, but also the starting point of a greater journey.

The stories of Drs. Small and Levinson (and others, like Dr. Mutulu Shakur) contend a new definition of integrative medicine: one that combines medical with social practices. Traditionally, integrative medicine is understood as the fusion of different medical theories, but this history teaches us that medicine can be entwined with the BPP spirit of “serving the people, body and soul,” in specific, and a commitment to change, in general.

Of Part and Parcel was born out of my desire to document these little-known but deeply important stories in an accessible format. The name, inspired by Dr. Levinson, highlights how most things (the medical field, narratives, people, etc.) are situated in a larger picture. To understand that picture, we must understand and investigate these individual pieces that are part and parcel of the whole and of the truth. This is especially true for the individual pieces that have been historically neglected. This site thus hopes to bring to light these hidden narratives — from my own perspective, as I, too, am situated in a particular context.

It would be an honor to have you join on this journey, and I hope you come away from these stories as inspired as I was.