The Ethics of Now with Damon Tweedy and Jeffrey Baker

Join the Kenan Institute for Ethics and host Adriane Lentz-Smith for a conversation with Jeffrey Baker and Damon Tweedy on race, memory, and what local history can teach us — as embodied in a story from Duke Hospital that still reverberates today.

In a new podcast, “UNHEALED: A Story of Race, Memory, and a Teaching Hospital,” Damon Tweedy and Jeffrey Baker revisit the largely forgotten story of a 24-year-old Army veteran named Maltheus Avery, who died following a car accident on December 1,1950 — after he was turned away from Duke Hospital because of his race. Reported around the country, Avery’s tragedy provoked national outrage and inspired a medical civil rights campaign.

In conversation with host Adriane Lentz-Smith, Tweedy and Baker will explore the challenging lessons we can learn from Avery’s story and why those lessons still matter today.

Damon Tweedy, MD is a professor of Psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and staff physician at the Durham VA Health Care System. His first book, “Black Man in a White Coat,” was a New York Times best-seller and was selected by Time as one of the top ten nonfiction books of 2015. He has also published articles about race, medicine, and mental health in medical journals and print publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. His most recent book is “Facing the Unseen: The Struggle to Center Mental Health in Medicine.”

Jeffrey Baker, MD, PhD is a professor of Pediatrics and of the Practice of History, and directs the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. He has spoken to many audiences on the history of racism in academic health centers and their communities, focusing on the example of Duke Hospital and Durham. He serves on the board of the Museum of Durham History, and in 2024-25 served as chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on Institutional History at Duke.

“UNHEALED” is a project initiated by the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Duke University Institutional History Project. It is part of the Trent Center’s broader mission of bringing the humanities to bear on clinical medicine — in this case, the challenges for academic health centers posed by the historical legacies of racism within their surrounding communities.

This event is part of the The Ethics of Now, a series of conversations between Duke historian Adriane Lentz-Smith and a range of artists, advocates, and authors whose works explore the moral challenges of our time.

This event takes place at the Hayti Heritage Center. A reception will follow the event.

Parking is available on the premises, at Phoenix Square, Heritage Square Shopping Center, and on adjacent streets. An accessible entrance to the premises is available from the parking lot. Please write to event coordinator, Jac Arnade-Colwill, at jac.arnade-colwill@duke.edu if you require accessible parking and entrance. Please be advised that seating for this event is first come, first served.