Destiny – Pride: Let’s begin by finding out a little about your family history – where, and to whom were you born? Have you any siblings? Are you married? Are there any children, etc.?

Dr. Chapman: I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. My family moved to Gary, Indiana in 1946, three months after I was born. My father had just become the first Executive Director of the Urban League in Gary, Indiana, so we moved there because of that. I spent my first 18 years in Gary, all the way through high school. I went to Roosevelt High School – the same school that the Jackson family attended, those who were at that particular time in school. They actually lived adjacent to the school.

From there, I came to Washington – in 1964 – to go to Howard. I had an older brother [Dr. Joseph C. Chapman, Jr., an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Specialist ] who had gone through undergraduate school and medical school at Howard, and that was the path that I thought I wanted to follow also. I also had two sisters [Carolyn Beatrice Chapman and Laura Louise Chapman (deceased)] and another brother [Norris Gross Chapman (deceased)]. So that’s basically how I got here.

Destiny – Pride: How did you meet your wife?

Dr. Chapman: That came, to me, many years later, but it was actually ten years later. I was an intern at old Freedmen’s Hospital and she [Ann Patterson-Chapman] was a first-year registered nurse, right out of nursing school. We watched “soap operas”– and things happened [laughter]. So that’s how we met.

Destiny – Pride: You mentioned the “old Freedmen’s Hospital.” It has a history about it, doesn’t it?

Dr. Chapman: Absolutely, absolutely. It’s an historic institution. The hospital came about over 130 years ago, through the Freedmen’s Bureau.

Destiny – Pride: What is the “Freedmen’s Bureau”?

Dr. Chapman: I don’t know all the details, but the Freedmen’s Bureau was set up after the Civil War for freed slaves, because the hospitals were not integrated. Later on it [Freedmen’s Hospital] became part of Howard University and Howard Medical School. It became the training hospital for the Howard University Medical School. At that particular time, more than half of the practicing physicians in the country, I believe, had trained at Howard and had gone through Freedmen’s Hospital.

Destiny – Pride: Give us a synopsis of your educational background.

Dr. Chapman: I went to undergrad school at Howard; medical school at Howard. I did my internship and residency at Freedmen’s Hospital and Howard. I did a two-year cardiology fellowship at Howard.

Destiny – Pride: Who are some of the individuals in your life who have had the greatest impact upon you and the choices you have made in your life?

Dr. Chapman: Well I would have to say certainly my parents had the greatest impact in terms of their direction and nurturing through the years. Even though they’re both dead, I still aspire to please them in many ways. Then, I think, you look for people, as you go through life, who remind you of your parents. At Howard, I could name numerous mentors, both in medical school and afterwards, who reminded me in their work ethic and their family values, etc., of my parents.

Destiny – Pride: Could you give us a couple of examples. I know when you start naming names, it can get you into trouble.

Dr. Chapman: I would certainly have to say Dr. Charles Curry had a tremendous influence, and there were just many, many mentors in the Department of Internal Medicine – Dr. John Townsend, who was the Chief of Internal Medicine at that time; Dr. Profula Mehrotra was a great influence. The list goes on and on. That’s one of the great things about an institution like Howard. There’s a certain ethic that is taught there in terms of how you should relate to your fellow man, but also how you should relate to the community as a whole. So I had a tremendous experience at Howard in terms of maturation.

Destiny – Pride: What were your parents’ names?

Dr. Chapman: Joseph Conrad Chapman, Sr. and Louise Gross Chapman.

Destiny – Pride: Would you say that there is a difference of practices maybe in the black community in how physicians might approach their client base/patient base vs. the broader population?

Dr. Chapman: Yes. I think that even though many physicians have subspecialty training – in other words, beyond internal medicine, there are subspecialties, like gastroenterology, cardiology and rheumatology. But, in spite of that, there are those physicians who tend to look at the bigger picture, realizing that the needs in our communities – because of the shortage of primary care physicians – are so much greater, that physicians have to broaden their perspectives and get involved. They have to look at the whole patient.

When Dr. Phelps and I opened our offices on Benning Road, we realized immediately that, if we didn’t look at the entire patient, there was the possibility that many things would be overlooked in the individual. To simply be in a community and focus on only one part of the body – when everything is broken – would not make sense.

Destiny – Pride: That leads us to a question that I’m going to take out of order. You partnered with an individual with whom I had the privilege and honor of getting to know far beyond his role as my physician – he became my close and personal friend – Dr. Carlton Phelps. Tell us about him: where did you meet him and how and when did you begin your partnership?

Dr. Chapman: I met Carlton at Howard University Hospital. He did his medical school training at Meharry, in Nashville, and came to Howard as an intern and did an internship, a residency, and he subsequently did a subspecialty in gastroenterology at the VA Hospital in DC. We became friends then, in part because we had a lot of things in common. He particularly liked sports. He played on a state championship basketball team at Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk [VA], and having been from Indiana, basketball was our number one sport, so we liked to talk sports, just to kind of relieve the pressures of the day. That friendship developed and became a partnership from the standpoint that we decided to open an office together, providing complimentary services – his was in gastroenterology, cardiology and internal medicine. So that’s really how it started.

Destiny – Pride: He died recently. How did that impact you professionally and personally?

Dr. Chapman: Well, personally, it was the most devastating thing that I can think of. We had been together for 28 years on Benning Road. I’ll never forget the day that he called me and told me that he was ill. From that aspect, it was like having a brother who was sick – what can you do? Suddenly, instead of a physician, you become part of the family struggling through this whole process of how to treat what ended up being a terminal illness.

Destiny – Pride: Professionally, what was going through your mind – get another partner . . .?

Dr. Chapman: Well, he was the kind of person who was irreplaceable because of his demeanor, his broad perspective on life, etc. But I was very fortunate to get someone in the office to share the office, even though we have completely different practices. I now have a podiatrist [Dr. Lubrina Louis-Jacques, DPM – District Podiatry, PLLC] that shares the office. That, too, has been helpful because it makes it convenient for my patients who have diabetes and other problems to have a podiatrist there. But the practice style is much different. I don’t have the inbred coverage for weekends, etc., that I once benefitted from; so it’s a bit different and a bit more difficult from that aspect.  On my immediate staff are Ellen Blount, who is my medical assistant, and Inez J. McDonald, my receptionist.

Destiny – Pride: You have practiced medicine for many years. How has the field changed since you first went into practice?

Destiny – Pride: And is that especially because HMOs are the leading proponents in that?

Dr. Chapman: Yes, and that’s made life a bit frustrating for many physicians because of the change in the style of practice. It has the tendency to “de-personalize” the practice. When we went into this community, we really wanted to know the patients personally, and we happened to have had a nurse who was superb at that – Ms. Yvonne Dorsey – who we hired when we first opened the office. She taught us the personal aspects of healthcare. We were amazed to see that she knew the husband, the wife; she knew how many kids a person might have; she’d give you 10 or 15 years of history on each patient. Even the new patients; she would learn them very quickly. So we adopted that style because we wanted to be a part of the community. We just envisioned ourselves as being the old family practitioner-type doctors, and that has changed with the influx of corporate America. You don’t have the benefit of spending that amount of time with the patients, although we still try to do that.

Destiny – Pride: You have worked at the office on Benning Road, NE for 28 years. Did you practice any place before that?

Dr. Chapman: No. Just a couple of years at Howard after I finished my fellowship.

Destiny – Pride: Tell us about your present practice as an internist and cardiologist.

Dr. Chapman: My practice now is devoted primarily to internal medicine. That’s what I do, for the most part. But I’ve also, over the past ten years, gotten involved in drug treatment, which is another very challenging aspect. And this was something that I had very little training and information about in medical school, but found to be a critical problem in our community.

Destiny – Pride: We’re going to get to that, but first, for our visitors, give them an idea of what being an “internist” really entails.

Dr. Chapman: An internist primarily treats and diagnoses health problems. For the most part, we treat things that are treated with medication, which means, we don’t do surgery. High blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol and arthritis are the major illnesses that we see. As a matter of fact, a recent study showed that almost 50% of adult Americans have either high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol, which is, in and of itself, risk factors for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, etc. But we’re involved in every aspect of health care in that we’re the doctors or the person that the individualis most likely to see before he sees the specialist for stomach pain, chest pain, headache or pain in the joints.

Destiny – Pride: You’re almost like a “traffic cop,” indicating which area of the body is going to be worked on.

Dr. Chapman: In a sense. You have to be extremely alert about everything, and curious about every aspect of a patient’s being in order to pick up on these things.

I think some recent studies showed that a third of children in this country are overweight, meaning that they have a body mass index of greater than 25; and obese, meaning a body mass over 30. That’s going to impact everything. It’s going to cause an explosion in diabetes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and all the attendant diseases that go with them – including arthritis, because if you’re carry extra weight around, it’s going to wear your weight bearing joints out – the hips, knees, and ankles – much sooner than it did the previous generation.

Destiny – Pride: You have talked about obesity, so my next question relates to what you see as being the major health issue of our day. Although I believe you have done a good job in explaining it, I’d like you to go in more depth, for we don’t hear the phrase “juvenile diabetes” any more. Instead, we’re hearing children of ages 9 and 10 being diagnosed with “Type 2 Diabetes.” You have alluded to this, but because of the explosion of Type 2 Diabetes in young children, would you speak further on this issue?

Dr. Chapman: It’s directly related to being overweight. The body is making enough insulin, but as you increase the size of the fat cells, the body no longer recognizes the insulin that it’s making, so it develops what is called “insulin resistant diabetes” – or “Type 2 Diabetes.” It’s a purely preventable disease. If you can recall, probably when you – and I – were in school, we had recess; we had mandatory physical education class; but then at some point in the curriculum, either due to economics or whatever, some of that was phased out. And at the same time, we’ve had the advent of computers and video games. So now, many kids are more likely to sit inside the house playing video games and playing on the computer than being outside, running around in the neighborhood, which is what we did. So I think it’s a combination of things.

Destiny – Pride: You partly hit upon it, but one of the things that we as African Americans have failed to address is the fact that when we were slaves, being forced to perform manual labor, our diets had to be reflective of that, and so we had to eat a high fat content diet to sustain ourselves. But now that there has been a shift in our work routine and we have become more sedentary, we have not readjusted our diets to reflect that change. Would you elaborate on that for us?

Dr. Chapman: Exactly. And that was shown a number of years ago. There was a tribe of Indians in the southwest part of the United States, whose cousins remained in Mexico. The cousins continued to work the land – they made their livelihood through agriculture, through growing things. So the cousins in Mexico continued the previous lifestyle. The cousins who migrated to southwest United States became more sedentary, began to eat the United States’ diet, and became diabetic. Over 50% of them were diabetics. It was too short a timeframe for a genetic mutation to have taken place so, obviously, it was just as you described, a drastic change in lifestyle without making the necessary adjustments in the diet.

So, you’re absolutely right; that’s what has happened in our community. We’re more mechanized. Things that we used to do manually just a few years ago are now done automatically with a machine. And then our food has changed dramatically also. Some people feel that it started with the advent of the race to outer space; that in that process, they had to develop food that could be condensed into very small containers in order to send up to outer space. It was light weight and so forth, but packed a lot of calories. So the food industry picked up on that also and began to add calories to their food so that you could go to a fast food restaurant and get 400 or 500 calories in a sandwich for a dollar. All of that has compounded the process. We have readily available high calorie food, and a decrease in exercise, both recreationally and on the job, which have conspired to have caused this obesity epidemic.

Destiny – Pride: You have been on the forefront of the battle with HIV/AIDS and drug and alcohol abuse, and I know that you are highly opinionated in both of these areas. How do you believe that we can begin to see substantial progress on both of these fronts?

But our community was particularly impacted by this whole epidemic in that not only did the Veterans frequently return to a situation where jobs were not available in our communities, but also there was a lot of tension and animosity. I guess after the civil rights movement, there was a sense of freedom in that drugs began to be more prevalent in the general population. It was not until the early 1980s that we recognized AIDS as a new disease. Suddenly all of this conspired at the same time.

Destiny – Pride: You have also done extensive research on how drug abuse impacts negatively on the brain. Can you talk about that?

Dr. Chapman: I haven’t done the research, but I’ve read about the research. It’s no secret that not only do drugs have the potential to cause one to crave for certain drugs like heroin, cocaine or amphetamines, but they also have a tendency to reduce one’s inhibitions because it impacts certain parts of the brain, like the frontal lobe, so that one is less likely to have the wherewithal to stop, and even though they may be in circumstances that are precarious and don’t make sense, they will still use drugs or buy it in public because of a lack of inhibition. So the drugs impact multiple parts of the brain at the same time.

Destiny – Pride: You mention “inhibition.” Normally, people walk around guarded about who they are. So, if I’m understanding – and to make sure our visitors can appreciate – what you’re saying, alcohol or drug use have a tendency to lower inhibitions and whatever desires that might reside in us, we have more of a propensity to indulge those desires. Could you talk on that?

Dr. Chapman: Yes, drugs, like alcohol, heroin and cocaine, affect the frontal lobe, and they actually impact that part of the brain that controls what we would define as “executive functions.” Those are the functions that tell us pretty much when to stop, go – what’s risky, what’s not risky – so that when you see, let’s say, a drug deal being made out on the corner in full view of the public, you would normally think that something like that would happen behind closed doors. But that really tells you the extent to which the drugs have taken over the person’s ability to rationalize.

Destiny – Pride: You have worked with the United Planning Organization’s (UPO) Comprehensive Treatment Center’s methadone program for some time. Tell us about that, including how long you have been the medical director there.

Dr. Chapman: For ten years. I got involved in it kind of tangentially in the sense that, after the Million Man March, I was impacted so much that I thought there must be a way that I could have more involvement in the community. The Million Man March brought everybody together on the same level. Realizing (i) that many – particularly males in our community – were unemployed, and (ii) that there was a burgeoning drug industry within our community, in part, filling a void from lack of education and opportunity, we had to find a way to turn that around, because you can’t have a destructive element within our community and then, at the same time, build a strong community. So we had to find a way to really impact that burgeoning epidemic.

Without taking care of that problem, there was no way they were going to be employable, no matter how good the training program was. So we had to deal with that aspect of it. I had initially intended to do the physical exam screenings, but couldn’t get pass that piece, so we decided we had to face that issue and not run from it. We decided, through the Community Action Agency, that we wanted to do it and set up this drug treatment program, which was the first – nationwide – of any of the Community Action Agencies across the United States. The Community Action Agency movement started some 40 years ago, after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. They’re in every major city, and in some rural areas all across the country, but the one in Washington was the first to undertake this monumental problem.

Destiny – Pride: Was that under Dr. DuPont initially – the methadone research?

Dr. Chapman: No, but Dr. DuPont did do the early work on methadone.

Destiny – Pride: What is the average stay of someone on methadone? I do know that some individuals have probably been on methadone almost from its inception. So what are you all trying to do to shorten that stay – wean them off of it? I know that you probably have to compartmentalize where these particular individuals are.

Dr. Chapman: Well, the mantra now is that you’re on it for as long as you need to be on it. A lot of work has been done by the National Institutes of Drug Abuse (NIDA), and we know statistically that a person who has an opiate addiction has an 80% chance of relapse, which is not a good statistic. The idea of saying that you’re going to be on it for a year or two years is no longer the goal. The second thing is the AIDS and Hepatitis C epidemics. Many people don’t know about the Hepatitis C epidemic, but Hepatitis C can cause cirrhosis of the liver and liver cancer. Upwards of 80% of intravenous drug users will become Hepatitis C positive within three months of initiating their drug use, so it’s very high. In order to stem both the AIDS and Hepatitis C epidemics, it’s incumbent to treat individuals with methadone or whatever it takes to keep them drug-free for as long as necessary. And that could be ten years, twenty years, thirty years, forty years, or forever, because we don’t want the patient to become Hepatitis C positive – or HIV positive – if they’re not. If they already are Hepatitis C positive or HIV positive, you don’t want them to relapse back into the community because you then have an opportunity for them to become a “carrier” and to infect many more people. That’s the problem that we are facing right now.

Destiny – Pride: For the visitors and me – especially me – to understand, we knew about Hepatitis, but was it just recently that they really found out about this “Hepatitis C?”

Dr. Chapman: Well, we used to talk about “Hepatitis A” and “Hepatitis B.” But there was another form of Hepatitis that, because they couldn’t identify the virus, they called it “non-A/non-B Hepatitis” for years. Finally, the virus was identified as Hepatitis C, and a test was developed; but it was around before we could put a name to it, so we just called in “non-A/non-B Hepatitis.” That particular form of Hepatitis was smoldering in the community; but again, it hit epidemic proportions – along with the heroin, etc. – after the Vietnam War.

Destiny – Pride: Is it my understanding that that is what closed down Natalie Cole’s [music artist] kidneys?

Dr. Chapman: It’s my understanding that she had Hepatitis C.

Destiny – Pride: You’ve told us about your professional career, but what do you do when you want to relax? Do you have any hobbies or interests that help you to get away from the madness?

Destiny – Pride: What are your son’s and daughter’s names?

Dr. Chapman: My son is Edwin Jr., and my daughter is Mia.

Destiny – Pride: When I’m in your office and look upon your wall, I notice that Mia is an acclaimed basketball player, isn’t she?

Dr. Chapman: Well, those were from high school and college. She’s now 28 years old. She’s got her own career now. She actually got a Masters Degree. She went to Towson, played basketball at Towson, got an undergrad degree and then she got a Masters from the University of Maryland; so she’s now a computer engineer.

Destiny – Pride: The reason I asked is because on your office wall I see all of your accomplished degrees and awards and other things, but she almost outmatches you on all of the things she has accomplished while at Towson. You have them plastered all over [laughter].

Dr. Chapman: Well, don’t let my son hear that [laughter]. He played varsity soccer at Howard all the way through college and had a scholarship to Howard. But both of my kids were excellent students. That was the one thing my wife stressed. That’s where the balance comes in. My wife had more trouble getting him to focus on academics in high school than my daughter. But he went to Howard also. Because of the professors and the coaches at Howard, and because of the atmosphere and their nurturing, he matured very rapidly, and actually graduated magna cum laude – and played varsity soccer. My daughter graduated cum laude from Towson and played varsity basketball the whole time. That’s pretty tough to juggle. But both of them are sports advocates also.

Destiny – Pride: What is your son doing now?

Dr. Chapman: He’s in investment banking in New York.

Destiny – Pride: Do you have any last thoughts or insights you would like to impart to our visitors?

So I started working with the United Planning Organization and drug treatment, but also with the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, which involves regional churches organized under Rev. Frank Tucker, dealing with AIDS in our metropolitan area. That is an affiliate of the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS, out of New York with Calvin Butts. So, by affiliating with an organization like UPO that has Head Start, senior citizens programs, a host of employment programs and other activities in the community, and a large cadre of churches, then you can get your ideas out and have a much greater impact on the community. We need to have the right cultural policies in place – that work for us. There is no better place than the black church and organizations like the United Planning Organization to get those implemented.

Destiny – Pride: And Frank Tucker is with what organization?

Dr. Chapman: He’s the Chairman of the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS in the Washington, DC/metropolitan area.

There is an old African greeting that asks “How are the children?” The appropriate answer is … “The children are well!” I find this greeting and response to be very profound in how one views life and what should really be most important for all of us. Mentally and physically healthy children implies and necessitates strong parenting, wise educators, strong surrounding community support, and concerned government. At this point I don’t think we can honestly answer in the affirmative that “our children are well” and that we, the adults, parents, and elders in our community, have collectively done an admirable job, as W. E. B. DuBois charged in his essay “The Talented Tenth” – if I can paraphrase – of “educating the masses so that they might steer away from the worst in ourselves and others.”

Destiny – Pride: And with that, Dr. Chapman, Destiny – Pride thanks you for giving us an opportunity to get to know you beyond your regular medical practice. We wish you the best in that practice as well as in the other activities with which you become involved. We applaud you in your commitment to our community, and we look forward to hearing more about the work you are doing in the upcoming years.

Dr. Chapman’s office is located at:
1647 Benning Road, NE 
Washington, DC 20002

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