Caring for Equality: A History of African American Health and Healthcare [Hardcover]

This concise yet inclusive text provides an impressive account of the many interconnected forces that have influenced health equity. In the present political environment, in which decades of gainsincluding equal access to health care and affirmative policies that ensure equal access to education and employmentare being erodedMcBrides excellent history, which includes a bibliographic essay, will guide students and other researchers while inspiring the public to call for more action to ensure health justice.This elegant book grounds the history of African American experience with healing firmly in the broader social movements for equality. McBride highlights the distinct motivations that underlay struggles for medical and hospital care, environmental and social justice, positing that equality is foundational in understanding it origins and broader meaning. This is a heartfelt and important premise, one that is rarely noted by American medical historians. McBrides book should be read by all who seek to understand the social basis of American health movements.An incredible story of persistence, passion, dedication and commitment to health equity, David McBride movingly shows how African American medical professionals were essential parts of black communities furnishing indispensable services and equally important providing a vision of what was possible  a society based on fairness, quality health care and justice. Waves of extraordinarily dedicated, innovative and brilliant activists arose generation after generation to address the enduring challenges of segregation, discrimination and outright racial repression in Americas medical care system. This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about the enduring struggle to achieve equality in health care in America.Caring for Equality is the right prescription for a short and readable history about African American and health care. From the healing science of slave women to community efforts to face the AIl�