Pioneering efforts by the Black Panther Party to pursue equality in health care will be discussed Nov. 8 during a lecture at Vanderbilt University.
Alondra Nelson, associate professor of sociology at Columbia University, will speak 4:15 p.m. Nov. 8 in Room 114 of Furman Hall on the Vanderbilt campus. The talk, sponsored by Vanderbilt’s Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, is free and open to the public. It will be recorded for podcasting on Vanderbilt’s news site.
Typically associated with the revolutionary rhetoric and militant action of the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the Black Panther Party did significant and lesser-known work pursuing equality in the health care system. Efforts included a network of free health clinics, a campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease and challenges to medical discrimination.
Nelson, the author of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, will discuss the legacy of this advocacy as well as the relevance today in the campaign for universal health care.
Go here for more information on the Center for Medicine, Health, and Society.
