Death by Wasting Away: The Life, Last Days, and Legacy of Lucy Byard

Abstract

Lucille Spence Byard is one of the most pivotal figures in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Her rejection for medical treatment due to her race at an Adventist sanitarium on the Maryland-Washington, D.C., border in 1943 was the major catalyst for the formation of regional conferences, or Black-administered governance units, within the North American administrative structure of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. However, almost since the day Lucy Byard was refused treatment, the major details of the event have been subject to the whim of the teller, and variant versions have become embedded in church lore. What has been particularly problematic, though, is that historians have not made the effort to explore what actually happened to Byard, which would require bypassing the entrenched legends and consulting primary sources. This article reconstructs the Byard event from primary sources, allowing the participants in the event, especially those of color, to be heard. What finally emerges is Lucy Byard the person—much more than just an icon of tragedy—whose last days sparked the most effective grassroots movement in Adventist history.