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Healers: these pages record the lives and teachings of herbal healers. They are history, not medical advice. Talk to a doctor before stopping or changing any treatment, especially for HIV, cancer or diabetes.

Healers

Dr. Alvenia Fulton

Tennessee-born naturopath Alvenia Moody Fulton (1906–1999) ran one of Chicago's first Black-owned health food and fasting centers on the South Side, and became the mentor who set Dick Gregory on his path as a nutrition teacher.

Not a photo of Dr. Fulton (no openly licensed photo of her exists): two boys preparing herbal medicine, the kind of family plant knowledge she grew up with and carried to Chicago
Not a photo of Dr. Fulton (no openly licensed photo of her exists): two boys preparing herbal medicine, the kind of family plant knowledge she grew up with and carried to Chicago. Credit: Kenny jazzy25, via Wikimedia Commons. License: CC BY-SA 4.0.

Roots in Tennessee

Alvenia Moody Fulton was born on 17 May 1906 and grew up in Pulaski, Tennessee, in a family that treated illness with the herbs that grew around them (Nursing Clio). She first worked in the ministry before turning to natural healing.

A health center on the South Side

In 1955 she opened a natural health practice in her Chicago home, and in 1957 she opened the Fultonia Health Food and Fasting Center on 63rd Street, on the city's South Side. There she taught fasting, herbal remedies and plant-based eating to a Black community with few such places of its own (Nursing Clio). Historian Travis Weisse has described her work as part of a wider movement linking food, health and Black liberation (Nursing Clio).

Mentor to Dick Gregory

Her most famous student was the comedian and activist Dick Gregory. She encouraged him to give up meat and take up periodic fasting, and he credited her as his teacher for the rest of his life (Andscape). She wrote the foreword to his 1973 book Dick Gregory's Natural Diet for Folks Who Eat. Her own books include The Fasting Primer.

Legacy

When she died on 5 March 1999, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a resolution mourning her as a treasured figure in her community (Illinois General Assembly).

The healing claims

Dr. Alvenia Fulton taught that fasting, herbs and natural foods could cleanse the body and heal illness. Her clients and students, including Dick Gregory, credited her with transforming their health.

Testimony

Sources

  1. Nursing Clio, "Alvenia Fulton, Soul Food, and Black Liberation: An Interview with Travis Weisse", 6 July 2020 (Scholarly)
  2. Illinois General Assembly, House Resolution 130 (91st General Assembly), mourning the death of Dr. Alvenia Fulton, 1999 (Primary source)
  3. Andscape, "5 reasons to respect Dick Gregory", August 2017 (Reference)