Dr. Juanita A. Archer

On November 3, 1934, Juanita Almetta Hinnant was born at Freedman’s Hospital, Washington, D.C. Her parents, Roy E. and Anna B. Hinnant, said that she arrived just in time for breakfast and she didn’t miss a meal after that. Juanita was especially blessed to be born to Roy and Anna, who were both self-sacrificing, often giving beyond their obvious means to her, younger brother, Roy, Jr. and others out of love, even when they had little for themselves. Their home was a place where family and friends loved to come, and some stayed. Anna was known for her hot rolls and excellent meals. When a new electronic house appliance came out, Roy was often the first person on the block to get it. Thus, at an early age, Juanita learned to love family, church members, and neighbors. God made her path, and then carefully led her along it. At the age of 4, with no physicians in the family and no regular encounters with physicians, she informed her mother and aunt that she was going to be a “doctor”. To prove this, she repeatedly “treated” her dolls by making “medicine” from weeds and pulling their arms and legs apart and putting them back together. Initially, she was educated in the segregated District of Columbia’s public schools, where dedicated, well-trained, superior teachers provided excellent opportunities for achievement. Subsequent to God’s grace, she went on to Dunbar High School. Dunbar also had an excellent faculty that was extremely well educated, many with doctorates, who were dedicated to educating their students and ensuring their students were well prepared for college. As a young high school student, she participated in a rally to get the Rosedale Swimming Pool and Playground desegregated. While going from door to door to get the white neighbors to sign a petition, she encountered nasty name calling from many of them but was not deterred and continued to protest and petition with numerous others. Many years later the Rosedale Playground was integrated. She continued on to Howard University where she met and became good friends with the love of her life, Frederick Ivan Archer. They dated for six years and were married in June 1958. They were married for 54 years prior to Fred’s death in 2012. To that marriage, God again answered Juanita’s prayer and permitted Frederick Ivan Archer, II to be born. As an undergraduate at Howard, in 1953, after being one of eighteen pledges in a group called “The Bad Eighteen”, she proudly became a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Additionally, she was inducted into Sigma Xi, a scientific honor society. She received three degrees from Howard University: Bachelor of Science (1956), Master of Science (1958) and Doctor of Medicine (1965). She continued her medical education at Freedman’s Hospital. During her training in internal medicine, she was fortunate enough to be mentored by the wonderful Dr. Walter Lester Henry, Jr. There, she was the first woman and the first Black physician to do a fellowship in a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases laboratory. While at the NIH she worked under Dr. Jesse Roth on the definition of insulin receptors in the first large group of humans to be studied. Being the first, she saw the need to increase Black representation in medicine, and worked to ensure that two other Black women followed her at the NIH. She returned to Howard in the early 70s, where, with the help of Dean Mann, the Department of Radiology and others, she established the first Endocrine Laboratory at Howard University Hospital. Their work eventually lead to the first published work on insulin receptors in red blood cells. Subsequent to the work at the NIH and at Howard, she and co-corkers were awarded many research grants. In addition to being invited to serve on numerous scientific boards, she was also invited to present lectures on her work at many sites throughout the country. She published 35 articles, two book chapters and numerous abstracts. In addition, she gave over one hundred lectures on osteoporosis awareness in people of color, diabetes, self-management, and COVID-19 pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment. Also, she was treasurer of Medco-Chirurgical Society of D.C. for four years and treasurer of Region II of the National Medical Association for four years. Of the many awards she received, the Howard University Medical Students’ Award for Excellence in Teaching and a Howard University College of Medicine sweatshirt from the students were two of her most prized awards. The friendships established with former students were amongst the many friendships that she prized throughout her life. Having been blessed with two God-loving parents who taught her as soon as she could talk how to say her nightly prayers, her parents would take her to Sunday school or send her in a taxi to be met by older cousins who would keep her until her parents arrived. She was baptized at Metropolitan Baptist Church at the age of 12. At the age of 15, after her parents moved into the Northeast area, she became a member of Israel Baptist Church. At the age of 17, she started and led the first Girl Scout troop at Israel Baptist Church (IBC) where she would later teach the Junior High Boys’ Sunday School class for 26 years and was selected as a “Mother of the Year” in 2005. In 1989, she started a mentoring program called, “Reaching for the Highest”. The program consisted of financial, social, and employment training, sexual education, and college preparation, and was attended by 12-17 y/o young adults from IBC and beyond. Mentoring gave her great joy such that she continued to find ways to help young people throughout her life. In 2016, she was instrumental in establishing the Emergency Response Team System for quick, orderly response to persons who became sick during a church service at IBC. Following her husband, Trustee Frederick Archer, she was appointed to the Trustee Ministry. After twice refusing to be ordained because God had not told her to do so, on April 22, 2007, she was the third female to become an ordained IBC Deacon. Having waited until she heard God say “What better thing can you do than to serve me”, she remained a dedicated servant as a Deacon. Since 2011, she has given annual scholarships to graduating seniors each year in honor of her parents and since 2012, with the exception of 2021, she has also given the same in honor of her husband’s dedication to the IBC Sunday School. Her estate will seek to continue these scholarships with annuities from a $50,000 donation to the church. She is survived by many loving relatives including son, Frederick (Eric) I. Archer, II, Ph.D. and daughter Anke Klueter, Ph.D. (Eric’s wife), Anthony Shepherd, M.D. (who she referred to as her “other son”), his wife Portia (her “other daughter”), two “sister” cousins, Bettie Currie-Tonic and Rose Shaw, a “brother” cousin, Luther Bryant, a “sister”, IBC Deacon Frances P. Hinnant, (wife of Roy E. Hinnant, Jr.) and many other relatives, friends and colleagues.

Tributes

Dr. Juanita A. Archer

November 3, 1934 - June 22, 2023