Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, M. D.

In the dedication of her book, “The Isis Papers,” Dr. Frances Cress Welsing wrote, “This work is dedicated to the victims of the global system of white supremacy (racism), all non-white people worldwide, past and present, who have resolved to end this great travesty and bring justice, then peace to planet Earth.” Then it is followed by quote from Neely Fuller Jr’s. “The United Independent Compensatory Code/System/

Concept,” a text book/workbook for thought, speech and/or action for victims of racism (white supremacy) which states, “If you do not understand White Supremacy (Racism)—what it is, and how it works—everything else that you understand, will only confuse you.”

Welsing’s theories about skin color and race have been very controversial yet straightforward and enlightening because unlike many—some who agree with her and others who do not—she had the audacity to publish her findings (thoughts and observation); something that many who may agree with her are not willing to do. A perusal through history and the comparison with other renowned scholars would reveal many similarities with Welsing’s work.

In “From Superman to Man,” J. A. Rogers wrote, before Welsing published her book, “Color prejudice is only a result of certain ignorant teachings. The White American to whom the feeling against the Negro means so much, had he been born in Europe and remained there, would have has some other kind of hate or phobia, such as dislike for Germans, or Frenchmen, or Italians, or Jews, or other White people.” This seems to validate the essence of Welsing’s observations.

She was born Frances Luella Cress in Chicago, Illinois, in March 1935, the second of three daughters to Dr. Henry N. Cress, M.D. and Ida Mae (Griffen) Cress, a schoolteacher. After earning her bachelor’s degree from Antioch College in 1957, Welsing continued her education at Howard University College of Medicine where she graduated as an M.D. in 1962. Following an internship at Cook County Hospital, she did a residency in general psychiatry at St. Elizabeth Hospital from 1963 to 1966 in Washington D. C. Welsing seemed to focus her professional career on psychiatry, psychology and the mental defects that she believed is inherent in Black people in general, as a result of centuries of oppression by White people.

During her career, Welsing has worked in a children’s hospital specializing in child psychiatry; the Paul Robeson School for Growth and Development North Community Mental Health Center; and in private practice as a psychiatrist, before rocking the fields of cultural and behavior science with her essay, “The Cress Theory of Color Confrontation and Racism (White Supremacy).” It describes that the origins of racism is rooted in the effects that varying degrees of melanin can have on racial perception and development for which she has been criticized for allegedly promoting an overtly racist ideology that White people are the genetically defective descendants of Albino mutants who had been forcibly expelled from Africa.

Welsing has espoused a theory of the condition of the world’s non-white—and especially Black—peoples that some scholars find obnoxious, others think incredible and many seem to just ignore, thinking that her ideas will eventually fade away, if ignored; but they have not. Rather than fade away, just the opposite seems to have happened because many reputable people and renowned scholars—past and present—have advanced ideas that paralleled her work and from whom she has referenced, directly and indirectly.

Published in : News, Legends