Newspaper Page Text
THE JOURNAL
OF AID ATLANTA
Vo. 1 No. 5
AIDS IN THE
RI-AflK COMMUNITY
SCLC TO CONDUCT SEMINAR ON AIDS
by Richard Bono
The Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) is conducting a national
seminar on AIDS May 31, in Atlanta, marking
the first time a major black organization has
made such an effort. And, there is a growing
body of information that SCLC’s efforts are
none too soon.
It is estimated that black Americans account
for 25 percent of AIDS cases in a country where
they make up 12 percent of the population.
This disproportionate percentage points to the
need for immediate educational efforts in the
black community, according to officials, who
say risk reduction and AIDS education
campaigns are particularly necessary for
heterosexual black men.
In an anyalysis called "AIDS Risk for
Minorities," Drs. Roger Bakeman, Judith Lumb
' and Donald Smith, report that 42 percent Of
the black men who have gotten AIDS are
heterosexual, 37 percent are homosexual and
16 percent are bisexual.
Risk reduction campaigns to combat the
spread of AIDS are particularly important for
hetero- and bisexual black men, the analysis
reveals, because of their contact with women.
Fifty-two percent of the women and 67
percent of the childrten who have gotten AIDS
are black, said co-author Dr. Roger Bakeman,
who’s study analyzes the reporting of AIDS
cases in the black community to the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC). Bakeman blames
"non-deliberate institutional racism" on the
part of the American media for ignoring the
severity of AIDS for blacks in its reporting and
its coverage of the disease.
Intravenous needle use in the black
community is as major a cause of the spread of
AIDS as sexual contact, say officials, who
report that 56 percent of the black women and
41 percent of the black men who have gotten
AIDS use IV needles.
(AIDS is spread from blood to blood as in the
sharing of needles and from semen to blood as
in sexual intercourse.)
Rev. Ken South, executive director of AID
Atlanta, said plans are being made for an
educational campaign targeted to the IV needle
user, a campaign that will be especially
directed to black heterosexuals.
"It’s synonymous," said South. 'If you say IV
drug user in Georgia, you’re talking about
straight black men and women."
South applauds the efforts of the SCLC in
sponsoring the May 31 seminar on AIDS, but
wonders why more has not been done.
"We welcome input from the organized
black community," said the AID Atlanta
director. 'The SCLC conference is the first ray
of hope we’ve seen. But what’s the Urban
League’s agenda for AIDS? What’s the NAACP’s
agenda for AIDS? What about black churches?
The SCLC is taking the lead, but there are
other black groups that can reach the black
community better than AID Atlanta and we
need them."
Future SCLC health care conferences will
focus on hypertension, cancer, sickle cell
anemia and infant mortality.
A lot of people think AIDS is a disease
restricted to white homosexuals. We want to
clarify that it is a disease affecting black
people," said SCLC President Rev. Joseph
Lowery. "We want to dissiminate information
and give people guidance on how to respond to
this tragic disease.
The conference on AIDS is the result of a
series of health care seminars SCLC conducted
across the country during the past two years.
"SCLC has for some time been concerned
about health care for black and poor
Americans," said Evelyn Lowery, national
convener and founder of SCLC/WOMEN. "We
have recently launched a poor people’s
campaign and have included health care as a
very importnat thing for the black community,
particularly when poor people often have to
choose between food and medicine," she said.
Rev. Lowery said SCLC made AIDS the
subject of its first national health care seminar
feeling a "sense of urgency" about the problem
for black people..
"We have received information that AIDS
has been spreading in the black community
among, heterosexuals and children at a
disproportionate rate and that gave it a sense of
urgency," he said. Also, "I guess one of the
reasons is that it’s such a current topic and we
wanted to deal with the ignorance and the fear
surrounding this crisis."
The AIDS conference, being conducted at
Paschal’s Hotel/Ramada Capital Inn, is
sponsored by the SCLC/WOMEN
Coordinating Committee, whose membership
includes such member organizations as the
Centers for Disease Control, Fulton County
Health Department, AID Atlanta and three area
medical colleges.
Conference coordinator Sandra McDonald
said she hopes the health care professionals
and educators attending the conference will be
able to to assist SCLC in taking information
about AIDS to the grassroots black
community.
'That’s what SCLC does real well," she said,
"getting the message to the grassroots folks in
their community, so that they can easily relate
to it."
From this meeting, McDonald said, SCLC
hopes to branch out to other levels like tenent
association meetings, church meetings and
the like.
Participants at the day-long conference
"We have received information that AIDS has been spreading
in the black community among heterosexuals and children
at a disproportionate rate and that gave it a sense of
urgency. Re V . Joseph Lowery
President, SCLC
include Dr. Ronald Hopkins, deputy director of
the Centers for Disease Control, Louis
Sullivan, president of Morehouse Medical
College and Walter Dowdie, acting AIDS
coordinator for the U.S. Public Health Service.
SCLC President Lowery will speak on
"Socio-Economic Rights Implication of
Adoption of Gay Lifestyles."
Worshop presentations at. the conference
will focus on AIDS issues relating to the school
system, employment and the status of medical
research. Special dialogues will be conducted
on promoting awareness of AIDS in the black
community, risk reduction and the challenges
that lie ahead.
In addition to the SCLC conference, AID
Atlanta Director South says "other rays of
hope" for educating the black community
about AIDS involve recent commitments from
the Georgia Department of Human Resources
Methodone Clinic and from the City of Atlanta.
DHR’s Drug and Alcohol Department, said
South, has agreed to train its Methodone
Clinic Staff on risk reduction. Statewide, he
said, the staff employs some 500 people, many
of whom are black. And, the city of Atlanta,
with some 8,000 employees, has contracted
with AID Atlanta for risk reduction classes and
AIDS education'. South estimates that 60
percent of city of Atlanta employees are black.
