Civil Rights and the American Health System: A Documentary Movie Viewing and Moderated Discussion
Civil Rights and the American Health System: A Documentary Movie Viewing and Moderated Discussion
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The passage of Medicare played a pivotal role in the fight for civil rights in the United States. Many parts of the modern-day healthcare system have roots in the inequitable treatment of people of color, particular Black and African-American individuals.
Please join us for a viewing of Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution, an hour-long public television documentary that tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. The documentary explores how Medicare was used to coordinated efforts that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country in a matter of months. The viewing will be followed by a 30-minute discussion of the history of racial disparities in access to medical care that continues to impact us today.
The panel will feature Karen Kruse Thomas, PhD, Historian for the Bloomberg School of Public Health, Wesley Wood, A&S '97, President of the Society of Black Alumni, Deidre Defoe, MD, MPH '95, ABPM and Alisha McDowell MA '16, both of The Johns Hopkins Health Equity Discussion Group, and Earl Harley, MD, Professor of Otolaryngology/Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Georgetown University. Registration for this event is limited to 50 participants.
This event is co-hosted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Society of Black Alumni at Johns Hopkins University, Howard University Medical Alumni Association (HUMMA), and the Howard University Department of Alumni Relations.
Deidre Defoe, MD, MPH is the medical director and COO of Innovation Health and is also one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins Health Equity Group. She received her MD from Howard University and MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Earl Harley, MD, is a 1971 graduate of Howard University College of Medicine. He currently serves as Professor of Otolaryngology/Pediatrics and Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at Georgetown University. He has a strong interest in Blacks in medicine including Black medical schools, Black hospitals and the history of Blacks in Otolaryngology.”
Karen Kruse Thomas, PhD is the historian of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of two books, Deluxe Jim Crow: Civil Rights and American Health Policy, 1935-1954 (2011) and Health and Humanity: A History of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 1935-1985 (2016). She earned a Ph.D. in 20th century US history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of the History of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Her work has won national awards from the Journal of Southern History and the American Association for the History of Medicine and has been funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library.
Alisha McDowell is a Resource Management Specialist in the public sector and is also one of the founders of the Johns Hopkins Health Equity Group. She earned her master’s degree in communication from the Johns Hopkins University Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. Her educational background includes a special interest in health advocacy, and health and digital communication.
Wesley Wood is a Baltimore, MD native, veteran of local and state politics, and a voting rights activist. In addition to working on the press staff for a former Maryland governor, he has worked as public information officer for state government agencies, press secretary for former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, and as an analyst in the Baltimore City Office of Council Services. Wesley is currently the Corporate and Government Liaison for PCs for People, a national nonprofit dedicated to closing the Digital Divide. He earned his BA from Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.