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We'll Fight It Out Here

A History of the Ongoing Struggle for Health Equity

David Chanoff and Louis W. Sullivan

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How a coalition of Black health professions schools made health equity a national issue.

Winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award by the Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage

Racism in the US health care system has been deliberately undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries. These health disparities only became a mainstream issue on the agenda of US health leaders and policy makers because a group of health professions schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities banded together to fight for health...

How a coalition of Black health professions schools made health equity a national issue.

Winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award by the Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage

Racism in the US health care system has been deliberately undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries. These health disparities only became a mainstream issue on the agenda of US health leaders and policy makers because a group of health professions schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities banded together to fight for health equity. We'll Fight It Out Here tells the story of how the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS) was founded by this coalition and the hard-won influence it built in American politics and health care. David Chanoff and Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of health & human services, detail how the struggle for equity has been fought in the field of health care, where bias and disparities continue to be volatile national issues.

Chanoff and Sullivan outline the history of Black health care, from pre-Emancipation to today, centering on the work of AMHPS, which brought to light health care inequities in 1983 and precipitated virtually all minority health care legislation since then. Based on extensive research in the literature, as well as more than seventy interviews with the people central to this fight for legislative and policy change, We'll Fight It Out Here is the important story of a vital coalition movement, virtually unknown until now, that changed the national understanding of health inequities.

The work of this coalition of Black health schools continues, both in supporting the training of more doctors and health professionals from minority backgrounds and in advancing issues related to health equity. By highlighting these endeavors, We'll Fight It Out Here brings attention to a pivotal group in the history of the health equity movement and provides a road map of practical mechanisms that can be used to advance it.

Reviews

Reviews

An important, detailed account of the hard-won victories in the fight for equal health care access in the United States.

Racism in the U.S. health care system has been deliberately undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries.David Chanoff and Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of Health and Human Services, detail how the struggle for equity has been fought in the field of health care, where bias and disparities continue to be volatile national issues.

This inspiring, engaging, and informative book describes not only the systemic barriers African Americans face but also the extraordinary agency Black leaders have demonstrated in overcoming some of these obstacles. At a time when health disparities have gained national attention, this is a story of solutions and hope, beautifully told.

This is an essential work on American medical history and its place in the fight for racial justice. The story is dramatic and lucid. The book should be mandatory reading for college courses and for anyone interested in America's ongoing search for racial equality. It represents a milestone in writing on medical history and should be part of the core knowledge of all those who care about equitable and human health care.

An amazing story of grit, determination, and perseverance to advance Black and minority-serving health institutions. To have a more just and equitable nation, more attention and support must be given to the cherished institutions that compose the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools.

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About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
6.125
x
9.25
Pages
272
ISBN
9781421444642
Illustration Description
15 b&w photos
Table of Contents

Preface
Timeline
Chapter 1. The Nadir
Chapter 2. The Response
Chapter 3. Abraham Flexner and the Black Medical Schools
Chapter 4. AMHPS: The Founding
Chapter 5. The Heckler Report
Chapter 6

Preface
Timeline
Chapter 1. The Nadir
Chapter 2. The Response
Chapter 3. Abraham Flexner and the Black Medical Schools
Chapter 4. AMHPS: The Founding
Chapter 5. The Heckler Report
Chapter 6. Landmark Legislation
Chapter 7. AMHPS and the Secretary
Chapter 8. The Office of Minority Health
Chapter 9. The Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities
Chapter 10. A National Institute
Chapter 11. A Common Mission
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Author Bios
Featured Contributor

David Chanoff, PhD

David Chanoff (SOMERVILLE, MA) is the coauthor of more than twenty books, including Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and more.