A Life of Revolutionary Struggle: An Interview with Dr. Vicki Alexander

In today’s post, Tiana U. Wilson, assistant professor of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, interviews Dr. Vicki Alexander on her new self-published book, Red Roots: My Life’s Journey Grounded in Revolutionary Struggle (2023). Dr. Vicki Ann Alexander, Doctor Vicki, as she wishes to be called, worked hard and intensely to tell her story. The book frames her life by discussing personal, political, and professional aspects of her development over time. She was, and still is, continually juggling which of these three “P”s are most important while balancing them on a tightrope. She credits her basic political understanding to her family’s connections with the American Communist Party and her involvement in the Third World Women’s Alliance and the Reproductive Rights Movement. Dr. Vicki’s medical training was at the University of California San Francisco and Columbia University in New York, with a specialization in women’s and public health. Before her retirement, she was a faculty member at the UCSF, Columbia University, and Harlem Hospital. Dr. Vicki was also the Medical Director at the Community Family Planning Council in NY for ten years and Berkeley Maternal Child Adolescent Health Director for eleven years. Her last official responsibility was founding and volunteering as the executive director for Healthy Black Families, Inc. in Berkeley, CA. Dr. Vicki encourages readers of her memoir to join this roller coaster ride through the good, bad, and ugly of her worldly encounters and always remember, “the people united will never be defeated.”

The genre of memoirs has long been a tool for radical Black Americans, whose histories have been too often distorted and marginalized in mainstream media or completely absent from institutional archives. Autobiographies from activists and intellectuals of the civil rights and Black Power movements, for example, were immensely popular and influential in changing the public’s memory of this era. Scholars have used these memoirs to debunk damaging depictions and stereotypes of individuals who dared to dream of and work toward a new society where the concentration of power and wealth was redistributed to the masses. The first-person accounts of revolutionary Black women like Assata Shakur, Angela Davis, and Elaine Brown gifted us with inspiring, earth-shattering, and soul-touching narratives through the inseparable lens of racism, sexism, and capitalism. Today, we see the canon of Black women’s memoirs growing among radical organizers and thinkers as they share their lived experiences from a movement that shaped the world.

Dr. Vicki Alexander’s memoir, Red Roots, walks the reader through the ideological origins and political legacy of a woman who dedicated her professional and personal pursuits to fighting against poverty, health disparities, social inequalities, reproductive violence, and US imperialism. Dr. Vicki’s activism in New York City and the San Francisco Bay Area spans over fifty years, which includes holding leadership positions in leftist organizations like the Third World Women’s Alliance, Alliance Against Women’s Oppression, Line of March, and MADRE. Her grassroots organizing has taken her around the world, traveling on North American delegations to Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Kenya, and South Africa. The interview below is just a snippet of Dr. Vick’s radical life and politics.

Tiana U. Wilson: Your book title, Red Roots, hints at your Communist background. Can you share how your parents’ involvement in the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) shaped your political worldview?

Dr. Vicki Alexander: I cannot remember a time in my life when “all of a sudden” I became a Communist. It was soundly implanted in my being that this political tendency was the essence of my life.  I think this was because both of my parents, and most of their brothers and sisters identified as Communists and were members of the Communist Party of the United States.  They had been converted during the Great Depression of the 1930s. They identified themselves as Black on my father’s side and as Jewish on my mother’s side.  My father was the son of a slave in the South. My mother was the daughter of Jewish immigrants from Poland who escaped from Hitler’s fascism. Revolution was in their blood.  Both were members of the Communist Party, USA in the 1930s through the 1950s.  Check your history books to understand the strong influence the Party had in the initial Union movement in the United States.

I am extremely proud of my parents and all of my background. They made me who I am. They made me unafraid to speak my mind and to be a part of the struggle for change in this country and in the world. The newspaper of the Party was called the People’s World.  It was more than just a newspaper, it was an organizing tool. The People’s World sponsored an annual picnic. At that picnic my brother and I played the parts of Fredric Douglass and Harriet Tubman, to reflect our deep connection to the history of Black folks in the United States.  I still vividly remember getting up on stage in front of 50 – 100 people and reciting writings from these two heroes.

Early on in my life, at about the age of four, I wanted to be a doctor. I identified with the “barefoot doctors” in China who would walk miles to care for sick people in many parts of China.  This was at a time before the Communist Party in China was formed and there was no “People’s Republic of China.” I can remember the small book written specifically for children that I read over and over. That is what I wanted to do in my life. I wanted to be a “people’s doctor.”  This caring nature was nurtured by my parents. They encouraged me, throughout my life to pursue this dream, no matter, how hard, I should become a doctor for the people.  That is how I would serve the people.

Wilson: What factors encouraged you to write a memoir? What were some of the challenges recounting your life’s work?

Alexander: I was driven to write a memoir for a few reasons. First and foremost, my sister had initiated a memoir with my father and its content inspired me to jot down some thoughts about my own history. After all, history, not recorded, will not be remembered! In addition, as I became older, certain things were not remembered as clearly as others. It was mandatory that I got my thoughts down on paper before my unique spin on my own history would be forgotten.

My most challenging factor in writing this memoir was the consciousness that my memory was often not the same from one day to the next. Fortunately, my mother and I enjoyed taking photographs. Also, my children and grandchildren liked to take photos. I just had to find them and decide which ones to use. In the process of finding photos, I discovered a colorful history of my family and I kept everything that was written and that I could find in binders or in picture frames or on placards or awards.

Wilson: There has been a resurgent interest in the Third World Women’s Alliance, especially with the publication of Dr. Patricia Romney’s book. However, most of these histories give considerable attention to the New York City headquarters. You joined the TWWA Bay Area chapter. Please share with us your journey to the Alliance.

Alexander: My journey to the Alliance was through first a lifelong desire to be a doctor.  Second, college was a pre-med adventure, then I worked in a laboratory analyzing the protein in the rats who were fed a full diet vs rats who were fed calorie and protein deficient diet.  This diet was akin to that seen in children in Africa who were malnourished and had thin arms and legs and enlarged abdomen. This was done in a laboratory in Seattle, Washington.  Then I applied to medical school and was denied at all the schools I applied.

After eight years, the state of California passed a law to increase the number of Black and Brown admissions to the University of California. I was one of the first to apply and be accepted at the San Francisco Campus. Now, nothing could stop me. I would be an M.D. or else! Of a class of about 130 students, there were 28 of color and about 20 were Black.  Amazing!

At about the same time I saw a small sign in the student cafeteria that there was an organization of Third World Women called the Third World Women’s Alliance (TWWA) that originated in New York. One member moved to the Bay Area and was starting a TWWA chapter in the Bay Area.  We met at a demonstration against the Vietnam War in Dolores Park in San Francisco. I have a picture of us sitting in the grass in Delores Park in my memoir. Her name was Cheryl.  I struck up a conversation and I volunteered to come to some meetings and talk about things of interest to Black women. Some examples of the talks were about vaginal infections and infant mortality rates, both higher in Black women than all others. Though I had a rough on call schedule, I tried hard to stay in touch and be a part of the TWWA. My journey with the TWWA is what kept me sane in an insane world of medical school as a Black woman.