Black Wellness Isn’t Welcomed: 2022 Black History Month

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Since 1926, a part of February was recognized as “Negro History Week”, and as of 1976, the entire month has been dedicated to honor Black History. Black History Month is a time to celebrate the accomplishments and acknowledge injustices towards African Americans throughout our nation’s history. The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), established in 1915, has set a theme for each year to focus the study of Black History. This year’s theme is Black Health and Wellness. The theme focuses on African accomplishments in western medicine yet also African native rituals which have been beneficial and successful.

The ASALH Program Planning Committee released a reading list for this year’s theme for Black History Month focusing on a number of sub-topics from African American mens’ mental health to the health choices of African culture. This article highlights 3 topics outlined in this reading list: the horrific Tuskegee Study in Alabama of the 20th century, the overwhelming lack of diversity in environmental and outdoor spaces due to historic exclusion, and the often overshadowed movement of women of color fighting for reproductive justice. Each section will highlight black leaders pushing for change and will be followed with additional reading and, when available, opportunities for individuals to take action.

The Tuskegee Experiment

The Tuskegee Experiment took place in Macon County, Alabama, starting in 1932 and did not end until 4 decades later. It was the longest non-therapeutic study in the history of medicine on human subjects, all of whom were African Americans. Its impacts still live on today.

This research was conducted originally by the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and later by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with the official title “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” However, the study’s participants never were told the true intent of the research they were subjected to. Instead, the 600 black male participants, 399 of which had syphilis, a harmful sexually transmitted disease (STD), were told they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term for a number of illnesses including fatigue and anemia.

As an incentive, the participants were given above-average medical care and insurance for African Americans of the day. These included free meals with their “medicines,” rides to and from their treatments, and survivors insurance. These incentives were especially enticing because the majority of the victims were poor share-croppers. To make conditions worse, at the start of the study, the Great Depression continued to dampen hopes of job opportunities throughout the 1930s.

By 1943, penicillin had become a standard and effective treatment for syphilis; however, the victims of the Tuskegee study were actively prevented by the PHS from receiving any treatment. To ensure that the participants continued with the experiment, ineffective medicines were given to all participants, making them believe that their ailments were truly being treated. In reality, the government itself prevented them from receiving life saving treatment.

The legacy of the Tuskegee Experiment lives on today. Even by the time the study was shut down in 1972, the damage had already been inflicted onto the victims and their families. Hundreds of the victims and their families died or were infected with syphilis. However, the African American community did fight back. Bill Jenkins, black epidemiologist, was a vocal advocate against the deep-rooted racism in the medical industry, including the horrors he discovered about the Tuskegee Study.

The above paragraphs only give an overview to the horrid events that took place over 4 decades and impacted a countless number of individuals. Here are some resources you can use to learn more about this study and its consequences on America today:

The Lack of Diversity in Outdoor Spaces

Outdoor spaces, including National Parks and other conservation areas, are disproportionately skewed towards white Americans over African Americans. According to National Park data, only 2% of the total visitors were African American while African Americans make up around 12% of the nation’s total population. So why is there an issue with accessibility and inclusion in our nation’s parks? This, as with many other racial issues, is rooted in a history of exclusion.

Those who first created the national parks in the early 20th century were often white men with racist ideologies. For example, Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the U.S. Forest Service, was a prominent believer in eugenics. These beliefs influenced his view on the purpose of outdoor spaces; he believed that they were created only for the benefit and enjoyment of Americans of Northern-European ancestry.

The lack of African Americans in outdoor spaces only furthers the vicious cycle of exclusion. African Americans have been unjustly forced to consider their safety and wellbeing when traveling into parks and outdoor spaces alone as a black minority in a white-dominated space. Avid birdwatcher Christian Cooper was passing the time in the Ramble section of NYC’s Central Park, an area in which dogs have to be leashed to protect wildlife. Cooper, a black man, asked a white woman, later identified as Amy Cooper (no relation), to put her dog on a leash. After a short verbal-conflict, Christian asked for her to not come near him, and then she threatened to call the police to tell them there was an African American man endangering her life. Christian recorded all of this, and it was later posted to twitter. To Christian and to Amy’s consulting firm, which fired her soon after the video went viral, the threats were clearly racially motivated. Christian Cooper, however, refuses to change his passion for bird-watching to conform with white society’s expectations.

Historically, while there has been much exclusion in the National Parks and other similar services, it is important to acknowledge the work and accomplishments of African American leaders in outdoor spaces despite the odds against them. One of these exceptional black leaders was Colonel Charles Young. Young was an impressive figure in two distinct fields, military and conservation. Young was the 3rd black West Point graduate, the first black colonel, and the first black National Park superintendent; however, his life, while full of accomplishments, was far from easy. Young was born in Kentucky during the Civil War, a border state. Young was born into slavery, but his father was able to escape and earn his family their freedom years later.

At a young age, Young experienced bigotry in school and once he reached West Point. Yet, Young still persisted and continued to rise in the ranks despite segregation. In the summer of 1903, Young and his troops were assigned to manage Sequoia National Park in Northern California. During that summer, Young and his commanded Buffalo Soldiers were able to rebuild the park’s trails and roads unlike superintendents in years past.

Overall, despite the harsh bigotry rooted in the parks system in America, African Americans have continued to demonstrate their accomplishments despite such odds. Today, still more has to be done to increase the accessibility and inclusion of outdoor spaces in America for the black community. Here are some resources you can use to learn more about this issue and ways to change this system:

Women Of Colors’ Fight for Reproductive Justice

The term reproductive justice is now a well-established idea in modern political movements. Its origins are from 12 strong African American women who merged two ideas into one movement to support the needs of marginalized communities across the country.

In 1994, after participating in the International Conference on Population and Development and a number of national conferences centered around the pro-choice movement and health-care reform, a group of leading African American women realized the need for a new movement. This group consisted of 12 African American women activists: Toni M. Bond Leonard, Reverend Alma Crawford, Evelyn S. Field, Terri James, Bisola Marignay, Cassandra McConnell, Cynthia Newbille, Lorretta Ross, Elizabeth Terry, ‘Able’ Mable Thomas, Winnette P. Willis, and Kim Youngblood. Despite all of the reforms they had heard, none had taken into account the impact income, housing, and other factors could have on one’s parenting choices. In addition, the group understood that the women’s rights movement was predominantly led by middle class and upper class white women and therefore fought specifically for those interests. They decided they had to begin their own national movement to advocate for the needs of marginalized women and their communities.

Together, the women began the decade-long movement for reproductive justice, “the belief that all women have the right to have children; the right to not have children and; the right to nurture the children we have in a safe and healthy environment.” Reproductive justice is a combination of two previously distinct social movements: social justice and reproductive rights. The women created SisterSong three years later to officially start a national movement to advocate for reproductive justice. The movement is multi-ethnic and understands that reproductive justice is a basic human right, recognized by the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Today, abortion is a widely debated issue across America. The two most widely known positions on this debate are pro-life, largely against abortion, and pro-choice, support the notion that women should have abortion as an option. The reproductive justice movement goes beyond these binary sides. The movement not only fights for abortion rights, including the basic rights to access and choice, but also highlights the need for more reform including increased access to contraception and sex-education especially in lower-income and predominately black communities. The above paragraphs only give an overview of the national, decade-long movement that countless individuals have dedicated their time to. Here are some resources you can use to learn more about this movement, its history, and its work today: