Date/Time
Date(s) - 01/31/2024
7:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Categories No Categories
Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution tells of a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to health care 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 in a matter of months.
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.
Through the voices of the men and women who experienced disparities and fought against them, Power to Heal will introduce the audience to a missing link in the Civil Rights Movement—a struggle over healthcare from a half-century ago that raises questions that resonate today: Is health care a human right? Must the federal government intervene to ensure equality?
Dr. Barbara Berney, the project creator and producer, is emeritus at the City University of New York School of Public Health and a distinguished scholar in public health, environmental justice, and the U.S. healthcare system. She was inspired to create and produce Power to Heal: Medicare and the Civil Rights Revolution by the compelling stories of her colleague, Dr. Richard Smith, who was director of field operations for hospital desegregation in 1966. With its promise of federal funds, Medicare created an opportunity to end the shocking inequalities in hospitals, reversing 100 years of segregated medical care. As a public-health professional who worked in civil rights for decades, she was convinced that this little-known, important, and dramatic story needed to be shared with a broad audience.
In addition to teaching health policy, the U.S. healthcare system, and environmental justice, Dr. Berney taught documentary production for public health practitioners at the CUNY School of Public Health. Before teaching at CUNY, she did advocacy and community and worker education on environmental and occupational health and HIV/AIDS. She got her M.P.H. in health administration from UCLA and has a Ph.D. in public policy from Boston University. She earned a B.A. in political science from Reed College.