Louise Wensel

Who was Louise Wensel?

Louise Wensel M.D., born in Fargo, ND Mary Louise Oftedal, ran as an independent Senate candidate against incumbent Harry F. Byrd in the U.S. state of Virginia in 1958. Byrd was widely regarded as playing the role not only of United States Senator, but also as effective political boss of the entire state. He was notorious for his role in the decision within the state of Virginia to close public schools rather than submit to court-ordered racial desegregation. Wensel's candidacy was based on her opposition to the closing of public schools and to all forms of discrimination. Despite death threats, violent attacks on campaign supporters and cross burnings, Dr. Wensel received widespread support and more than 23 percent of the official vote count in an election governed by the Jim Crow policies that characterized Virginia elections prior to the Voting Rights Act.

After the 1958 elections Wensel continued as a practicing physician until a few years prior to her death in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2005. For much of her career she specialized in psychiatry, and in the 1970s played a major role in introducing acupuncture as a mainstream treatment approach in U.S. medicine. She was one of main doctors in famous Washington Acupuncture Center, with offices in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Maryland, and Florida, and wrote the textbook Acupuncture in Medical Practice. She was active throughout her life in movements for world peace and women's rights.