© Daniel Burton-Rose and Yi-Li Wu,  | doi:./- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Asian Medicine  () – brill.com/asme Acupuncture, the Black Panther Party, and People’s Medicine An Interview with Physician-Activist Tolbert Small Daniel Burton-Rose | ORCID: --- Department of History, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA burtond@wfu.edu Yi-Li Wu | ORCID:--- Department of Women’s and Gender Studies and Department of History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA yiliwu@umich.edu Abstract Tolbert Small (b. 1943) is a physician and civil rights activist best known for his advo- cacy for research on sickle cell anemia. In the summer of 2020 two of Asian Medicine’s editors, Daniel Burton-Rose and Yi-Li Wu, interviewed Small about his clinical career of more than fifty years. The interview focuses on Small’s experience with acupunc- ture, the practice of Chinese medicine in the United States, and his commitment to social justice. Small was introduced to acupuncture in 1972 as a member of a delega- tion of the Black Panther Party to the People’s Republic of China, and he incorporated it into his clinical practice upon his return to Oakland, California. Small began practic- ing acupuncture at a time when instructional materials and therapeutic implements were difficult to obtain. He witnessed the gradual mainstreaming of Chinese medicine in the United States, accompanied by problems of differential access based on race and income. Keywords Tolbert Small – Black Panther Party – People’s Republic of China – acupuncture Downloaded from Brill.com11/09/2021 05:04:14PM via Wake Forest University