We'll Fight It Out Here: A History of the Ongoing Struggle for Health Equity

by David Chanoff, Louis W. Sullivan

Overview

How a coalition of Black health professions schools made health equity a national issue.

Winner of the Phillis Wheatley Award from the Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage

Racism in the US health care system has been deliberately undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries. These health disparities only became a mainstream issue on the agenda of US health leaders and policy makers because a group of health professions schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities banded together to fight for health equity. We'll Fight It Out Here tells the story of how the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS) was founded by this coalition and the hard-won influence it built in American politics and health care. David Chanoff and Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of health & human services, detail how the struggle for equity has been fought in the field of health care, where bias and disparities continue to be volatile national issues.

Chanoff and Sullivan outline the history of Black health care, from pre-Emancipation to today, centering on the work of AMHPS, which brought to light health care inequities in 1983 and precipitated virtually all minority health care legislation since then. Based on extensive research in the literature, as well as more than seventy interviews with the people central to this fight for legislative and policy change, We'll Fight It Out Here is the important story of a vital coalition movement, virtually unknown until now, that changed the national understanding of health inequities.

The work of this coalition of Black health schools continues, both in supporting the training of more doctors and health professionals from minority backgrounds and in advancing issues related to health equity. By highlighting these endeavors, We'll Fight It Out Here brings attention to a pivotal group in the history of the health equity movement and provides a road map of practical mechanisms that can be used to advance it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421444659
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	10/11/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Chanoff (SOMERVILLE, MA) is a scholar in residence at Brandeis University and the coauthor of more than twenty books—including Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care—and has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and more. Louis W. Sullivan (ATLANTA, GA) is a former secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services and the founding dean and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine.

David Chanoff (SOMERVILLE, MA) is the coauthor of more than twenty books, including Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, and more.
Louis W. Sullivan (ATLANTA, GA) is a former secretary of HHS and the founding dean and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine.

Table of Contents

Preface
Timeline
Chapter 1. The Nadir
Chapter 2. The Response
Chapter 3. Abraham Flexner and the Black Medical Schools
Chapter 4. AMHPS: The Founding
Chapter 5. The Heckler Report
Chapter 6. Landmark Legislation
Chapter 7. AMHPS and the Secretary
Chapter 8. The Office of Minority Health
Chapter 9. The Center for Minority Health and Health Disparities
Chapter 10. A National Institute
Chapter 11. A Common Mission
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

What People are Saying About This

Wayne J. Riley

An amazing story of grit, determination, and perseverance to advance Black and minority-serving health institutions. To have a more just and equitable nation, more attention and support must be given to the cherished institutions that compose the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools.

Joseph A. Califano Jr.

We'll Fight It Out Here is a David and Goliath legislative story of how a small and dedicated group of health professionals battled to eliminate health disparities and push through Congress legislation that opened up first-rate medical care to African Americans. It is a historical gem of how participants in the legislative process in Washington can be persuaded to do the right thing for those in greatest need.

Joseph A. Califano

We'll Fight It Out Here is a David and Goliath legislative story of how a small and dedicated group of health professionals battled to eliminate health disparities and push through Congress legislation that opened up first-rate medical care to African Americans. It is an historical gem of how the legislative process in Washington can be persuaded to do the right thing for those in greatest need.

Kenneth M. Ludmerer

This inspiring, engaging, and informative book describes not only the systemic barriers African Americans face but also the extraordinary agency Black leaders have demonstrated in overcoming some of these obstacles. At a time when health disparities have gained national attention, this is a story of solutions and hope, beautifully told.

Augustus A. White III

This is an essential work on American medical history and its place in the fight for racial justice. The story is dramatic and lucid. The book should be mandatory reading for college courses and for anyone interested in America's ongoing search for racial equality. It represents a milestone in writing on medical history and should be part of the core knowledge of all those who care about equitable and human health care.

From the Publisher

This inspiring, engaging, and informative book describes not only the systemic barriers African Americans face but also the extraordinary agency Black leaders have demonstrated in overcoming some of these obstacles. At a time when health disparities have gained national attention, this is a story of solutions and hope, beautifully told.
—Kenneth M. Ludmerer, MD, Washington University in St. Louis, author of Let Me Heal: The Opportunity to Preserve Excellence in American Medicine

This is an essential work on American medical history and its place in the fight for racial justice. The story is dramatic and lucid. The book should be mandatory reading for college courses and for anyone interested in America's ongoing search for racial equality. It represents a milestone in writing on medical history and should be part of the core knowledge of all those who care about equitable and human health care.
—Augustus A. White III, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, author of Seeing Patients: A Surgeon's Story of Race and Medical Bias

An amazing story of grit, determination, and perseverance to advance Black and minority-serving health institutions. To have a more just and equitable nation, more attention and support must be given to the cherished institutions that compose the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools.
—Wayne J. Riley, MD, MPH, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University

We'll Fight It Out Here is a David and Goliath legislative story of how a small and dedicated group of health professionals battled to eliminate health disparities and push through Congress legislation that opened up first-rate medical care to African Americans. It is a historical gem of how participants in the legislative process in Washington can be persuaded to do the right thing for those in greatest need.
—Joseph A. Califano Jr., former US Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare

Augustus A. White lll

This is an essential work on American medical history and its place in the fight for racial justice. The story is dramatic and lucid. The book should be mandatory reading for college courses and for anyone interested in America's ongoing search for racial equality. It represents a milestone in the writing on medical history and should be part of the core knowledge of all those who care about equitable and human healthcare.

Editorial Reviews

An important, detailed account of the hard-won victories in the fight for equal health care access in the United States.
—Foreword Reviews

Racism in the U.S. health care system has been deliberately undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries. David Chanoff and Louis W. Sullivan, former secretary of Health and Human Services, detail how the struggle for equity has been fought in the field of health care, where bias and disparities continue to be volatile national issues.
—Washington Informer

A pertinent and valuable exploration of the often-overlooked endeavors to address racial health disparities in the United States....The book captivates readers by weaving together political history and memoir, interspersed with interviews and reflections from those closely associated with AMPHS to paint a vivid picture of a critical historical period.
—The FASEB Journal

An extraordinary story of women and men who worked to improve the health and human condition of Black and other underserved or unserved populations... Sustaining health equity demands the tenacity that AMHPS has demonstrated since its inception nearly 50 years ago... [The] title of the book, "We'll Fight It Out Here," is the mantra that charactered AMHPS in the past, characterizes AMHPS in the present, and will characterize AMHPS in the future.
—Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved

Chanoff and Sullivan's book is thorough, honest, inspiring and certain to become a must-read for all public health professionals.
—Journal of Consumer Health on the Internet

From the Publisher

An important, detailed account of the hard-won victories in the fight for equal health care access in the United States.

Foreword Reviews