Skip to contents
In This Issue:
Despite its advances in health care, the U.S. ranks 46th in the developed world for infant mortality, 24th in life expectancy and 37th out of nearly 200 countries for health status.
“I would like us to consider how we can achieve our larger vision, one that aspires to the highest level of health possible, for all of those living in the U.S.,” said Paula A. Johnson, MD, MPH, chief of the Division of Women’s Health and executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, during the 2011 Alvin F. Poussaint, MD Visiting Lecture Feb. 8.
In her lecture, “Achieving Health in the U.S.: Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement,” Johnson drew parallels between the civil rights era’s grassroots efforts and America’s need for a similar movement today to guarantee what she calls our most important national asset: our health.
“Health remains the unfinished work of that movement,” Johnson said, challenging attendees to retrace Poussaint’s journey connecting the movement for civil rights with what she calls the Movement for Health. “We can be inspired by the energy and creativity he has embodied, to make the difference—to build a bridge between the Civil Rights Movement and health care, the bridge between health care and the need for increased diversity among our workforce, and the bridge between health care and public health.”
Organized by Harvard Medical School, the endowed lecture honors Alvin F. Poussaint, MD, a renowned author, psychiatrist, educator, social critic and founder of the innovative Media Center, who has a strong personal connection to the Civil Rights Movement. He organized medical care for the marches throughout the South during the Civil Rights Movement, worked toward desegregating medical facilities in the South in the turbulent 1960s and was a leader in the community health center movement.
“Dr. Poussaint made the decision to lead from where he stood, on that bridge from racial strife to a better America,” Johnson said. “The greatest tribute that we can pay him today is to embrace our task with an equal measure of courage.”
Watch a video of Johnson delivering the 2011 Alvin F. Poussaint, MD Visiting Lecture www.mfdp.med.harvard.edu/video.html