I First met Dr. Cornelia Graves sitting at the Organ in Music Ministry at Payne Chapel, Nashville. Sitting now with her I asked: You have a spiritual dimension that comes from a very deep place and I have always seen that in you. Let’s begin with you talking about where that very old spirit comes from?
“Probably from my older parents. I was born to my mother when she was about 39. My father was in his 50s. My mother was told that she could not have children. She herself was Valedictorian of her college class. 4 years before ‘Brown vs the Board of Education’ she earned her masters degree at Northwestern University. My Mother had a very deep spiritual connection. She was the Sunday School Superintendent in the AME Church and Minister of Music. She taught me Piano and was my first Choir Director. My Father was a Baptist minister and a Principal. I began singing for my father as the A&B selection when I was about six. It is how I really started music ministry. I began arranging music at about 15, writing my first composition for my mother’s birthday. Playing for other churches gave me different musical styles; combining my classical music training with my gift of being able ‘to hear and play’.”
Born and raised by two Educator Parents, share a portion of your educational career.
Dr. Cornelia was born in Carruthers Missouri and grew up in Osceola, Arkansas. “My parents were very good at making sure that my younger brother and I did not really always understand the racial undertones of the times of Integration in 70s Arkansas. I integrated the Catholic Kindergarten. My Mother did not believe in gender roles. When I was about 7, we got this chemistry set with a doctors bag. My dad said we know William will be the doctor and Connie will be the nurse. I went… girls can be doctors too! When I was 8th or 9th grade my mother became the first black teacher in that city to integrate the schools.” Dr. Connie was a Majorette at Osceola High school, among many other activities; with a pride for having her own checkbook before and during her High School years.
“Baylor University was great. The greatness, for me, was it being a religious institution with Southern Baptist affiliation.” The “Firsts” of her life are amazing grace. At Baylor she was a charter member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.—the first black fraternal student organization to Charter. As President, they integrated the Pan Hellenic Council. Several Medical Schools where prepared to receive her admission. She chose The University of Arkansas because Arkansas presented a fully paid program. By Medical School Graduation she was first again: the number one student in her OB/GYN class. She chose Vanderbilt for Residency —the first black woman in the OB Program. Upon completion, she took off for San Antonio looking at a Fellowship Program when Dr. Frank called her to return to Vanderbilt. “I came back and became the Director of Critical Care. Then became the Director of Maternal Medicine. Then Division Director. I believe I was the first black woman to be a Division Director at Vanderbilt University.”
We engage in many organizations in our life time, some with more power and consciousness of society than others. Apart from sorority, what is the one organization of your life that has purpose in stating and working for the most important goals of society for you?
“That would be the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine. The Maternal Female Medicine Specialist takes care of high risks prior to pregnancy and then after for those who have complications. We have deliberate focus on health equity and health justice. She looks at how to improve outcomes for women of color. The Society has been a voice reason. We know that some pregnancies need to have unobstructed access to ending the pregnancy for whatever reason that may be. I currently serve on the Foundation for the Society.”
Then I asked: What makes your heart bleed?
“The fact that the United States of America having all their resources has one of the highest maternal mortality rates of any industrialized country and the fact that if you’re 40 and pregnant in this country and happen to be a black woman your risk of dying could be the same as if you live in the Congo. That is an atrocity because black maternal mortality is not a mystery… it is a mirror; it’s about what we value and what we hold. It makes my heart bleed that our daughters, nieces and nephews must still combat the racism, sexism, the devaluing of women and childbirth. The lack of knowledge and research that we have not invested in women and children especially during pregnancy, it hurts me tremendously that this occurs in the supposedly richest country in the world.”
“The other thing that makes my heart bleed is for our children. Often there’s a lot of judgment that having worked with the youth ministry here at Payne Chapel, I realize that a lot of these children are raising themselves. And in fact, I marvel at their resilience because if you have no one who really cares for you and puts other people above you… doesn’t make sure you have clean clothes and really don’t care if you have food; but yet you get up every day and you try to go to school that’s a win for me.”
All inquiries By email: talk2therev@icloud.com
