Byllye Y. Avery

For her daughter’s 11th birthday Byllye Avery used icing to emblazon her birthday cake with the message: ‘Happy Birthday, Happy Menstruation!’ This bold and poignant gesture characterizes Byllye’s commitment to health activism and her passion for empowering women. In 1974, only a year after the Roe v. Wade decision, Byllye co-founded the Gainesville Women’s Health Center, a first-trimester abortion provider. Byllye also established an alternative birthing center, called Birthplace, where women could deliver with the aid of certified midwives. In 1981, Byllye persuaded her fellow NWHN board members to pay more attention to Black women’s health issues, and she founded the National Black Women’s Health Project, now known as the Black Women’s Health Imperative. The Imperative is the only national organization specifically dedicated to promoting the physical, mental, and emotional health of Black women. The Imperative promotes leadership in Black women’s health issues by organizing women in their communities. Byllye has won numerous awards for her work in health activism (including the 1989 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for Social Contribution) and there is no indication that she is slowing down. She continues her public work, founding the Avery Institute for Social Change in 2002. The Institute addresses health concerns of people of color and is working to establish affordable health care for all people. See: http://www.averyinstitute.org or contact BYA1NBWHP@aol.com.
September 2005