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Power to Heal

Black History Month 2024 • 56m

Directed by Charles Burnett and Daniel Loewenthal • Documentary • 2018 • 56 minutes

POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country practically overnight.

Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation's hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies.

Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. POWER TO HEAL illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve a greater measure of justice and fairness for African-Americans.

Tags
1964 civil rights act, access to healthcare, african-american studies, alvin blount, ama, american (u.s.) studies, amreican hospital association, andrew goodman, anthropology and archaeology, antoinette (toni) daniels, area studies, arthur kellerman, black history, black hospitals, blackhistory2, bob smith, bullfrog films, business, center for disease cpontrol, charles evers, civil rights, civil rights movement, criminal justice, critical thinking and ethics, cultural and ethnic studies, david barton smith, david satcher, desegregating hospitals, doc, donald chapman, dorothy ferebee, dr. aaron shirley, dr. alvin poussaint, dr. king, dr. robert marston, edith jones, ethics, everett dirksen, expository, fight for medicare, freedom summer, george simkins jr., gerald oppenheimer, health, health care sector, healthcare, healthcare1, helen barnes, hew as civil rights enforcement agency, hew shuffle, hill-burton act, history, history of medical segregation, history of medicine, hospitals integrated, institutional racism, jack geiger, james chaney, jesse roth, john dittmer, john gardner, john mcknight, jonathan rosenberg, josephine disparti, judy norsigian, julian suttle, karen kruse thomas, l.c. dorsey, labor and economics, larry brilliant, law and legal studies, m-r, martin luther king, medgar evers, medical anthropology, medical committee for human rights, medical ethics, medical sociology, medicare, medicine and nursing, michael meltsner, michael schwerner, mississippi, naacp, national medica association, north american studies, ovid, ovid_ca, parkview hospital, perlene williams, peter libasi, peter libassi, phillip lee, philosophy, phyllis cunningham, politics and political science, power to heal, president johnson, public health, race and racism, racial justice, raylawni young branch, robert smith, robin d.g. kelley, roger platt, s_0005, s_0028, s_0043, s_0099, s_0134, s_0143, s_0192, s_0237, s_0269, s_0270, s_0278, s_0450, s_0467, s_0597, s_0642, s_0660, sectors, segregated care, segregating blood supplies, segregating linens, segregating patients, segregation in the north, sidney feldman, silvia drew ivie, social issues, sociology, the 1950s and the cold war, the 1960s and vietnam era, title_nopqrs, title_p, u.s. government and politics, u.s. history, university of mississippi medical center, usa, yazoo city

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