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We'll Fight It Out Here

A History of the Ongoing Struggle for Health Equity

David Chanoff author Louis W Sullivan author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Johns Hopkins University Press

Published:22nd Oct '24

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We'll Fight It Out Here cover

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.

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

  • Winner of Phillis Wheatley Award 2023 (United States)

ISBN: 9781421450445

Dimensions: 235mm x 156mm x 18mm

Weight: 408g

280 pages