“I don’t think as a kid I ever saw a minority physician,” says Russell J. Ledet.

Ledet is a second-year medical student in the M.D./MBA program at Tulane University School of Medicine, and African American. Last weekend he organized a trip to Whitney Plantation, now a museum, in Edgard, La., for fellow members of the Tulane chapter of the Student National Medical Association, a student-run organization that supports black medical students.

A tweeted photo of 15 African American medical students posing in front of former slave quarters — wearing the short white coats that symbolize their status as doctors in training — has racked up more than 70,000 views and nearly 17,000 retweets in a matter of days.

“I wanted this photo to just show: We’re here,” Ledet says, of the plantation photo. “This place is meant to destroy us. This place is meant to devalue us. But we here.”

Black Med Students At Former Slave Quarters Say ‘This Is About Resiliency’

Photo: Brian Washington Jr.
Caption: Russell Ledet, a second year medical student (top row, 3rd from left) organized an outing for 14 of his fellow African American classmates to a plantation museum that houses former slave quarters. Ledet says he would caption this photo “Our Moment of Resiliency.”