Just weeks after Black History Month Tennessee Republicans are rushing to pass a bill that would devastate Black communities across Tennessee by shuttering pharmacies and dismantling the healthcare infrastructure they rely on.
This bill, the FAIR Rx Act (Senate Bill 2040), would force pharmacies large and small, including specialty, mail-order, and even prescription fulfillment centers, to close their doors by 2027. Proponents of this bill would have you believe this legislation will increase transparency and fairness in prescription drug pricing. In actuality, this bill poses a threat to all Tennesseans who will be caught in the middle, disproportionately affecting Black folks throughout our great state by stripping them of what they need most—access.
Tennessee’s legacy in medicine runs deep—especially at our Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). There are seven HBCUs that call Tennessee home. For years, these institutions have trained some of the sharpest minds this country has ever seen and led the way in groundbreaking healthcare.
Although HBCU pharmacy schools represent only 4 percent of America’s pharmacy schools, they account for an average of 22.8 percent of the total African American student enrollment across all pharmacy schools. Moreover, HBCUs have produced about 50 percent of the Black pharmacists in the United States, greatly contributing to the nation’s pharmacy access.
One of these storied institutions, Meharry Medical College, was the first medical school in the South—Black or otherwise—to offer four-year training. Meharry, along with other HBCUs across this country, would become the training ground for many Black pharmacists who would have otherwise not been afforded the opportunity.
Right here in Tennessee, pioneering Black pharmacist John “J.B.” Martin graduated from Meharry in 1910 and established a successful chain of drugstores in Memphis in the early 20th century. Years later, Dr. Charles A. Champion, who received his pharmacy doctorate from another noted HBCU, Xavier University in Louisiana, would build upon the legacy of Martin, becoming the first Black pharmacist to work in a Memphis hospital in 1957 before founding Champion Pharmacy and Herbs in 1981, which continues to serve the people of Memphis to this day.
These pioneers and the generations of Black pharmacists who followed are what have sustained Black communities for decades. Black pharmacists open pharmacies in areas that others avoid. They serve communities that are neglected or just flat-out forgotten. And when times are hardest, they give our communities health.
The Fair Rx Bill would effectively eliminate future opportunities for pharmacy graduates who not only serve minority communities, but provide the cultural competency and sensitivity necessary to serve a community often wary of medications due to historical trauma, discrimination, and implicit bias experienced throughout the healthcare system.
Pharmacies like these and others are community cornerstones, serving as Black families’ closest and most convenient healthcare centers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, pharmacies were our first line of defense, providing life-saving vaccinations. They did more than just fill prescriptions; they were a therapeutic substitution for physicians, ensuring continuity of care.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and most inhuman because it often results in physical death.” Black communities already face deep and persistent health disparities. Why would Tennessee Republicans choose to make those disparities worse?
Our state slogan is “Tennessee—America at its best.” We can only be our best when every Tennessean has access to the care they need. That care begins with reliable access to medication through our community pharmacies.
The FAIR Rx legislation now before the Tennessee Senate would take that access away.
How can we truly provide the best care for Tennesseans if we allow this misguided legislation to pass the Tennessee Legislature, shuttering up to 130 pharmacies throughout the state? The truth is we can’t.
