Black leaders at Washington, D.C., summit urge action in the fight against HIV/AIDS

WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 20, 2009) – African-American leaders are urging Americans to send a message to their representatives in Washington: AIDS is devastating the Black community and the federal government must do more.

The leaders delivered that same message directly to the White House last week in a summit of prominent representatives from the clergy, healthcare, pharmaceutical industry, medicine and government. Now they are asking all Americans to take the battle against the AIDS epidemic in Black America to a new level.

“This group came together with one voice,” said Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, chairman of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA), which organized the summit: “Our message is that people are dying and suffering unnecessarily because the money has not been put in the community where the needs are the greatest. We need a whole new paradigm and this bill begins to move us in that direction.”

Summit leaders met April 16 at the Sofitel hotel in Washington, D.C., to plan strategy and to discuss actions they can take in their own communities to fight HIV and AIDS, which infects Black Americans at a substantially higher rate than Whites. For instance, Black Americans are seven times more likely than White Americans to become newly infected with HIV, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Then, in a gesture reminiscent of civil rights protests – and symbolizing the importance of the fight against AIDS – summit participants locked arms and marched from the Sofitel to the White House, where they met with White House staff, including Jeffrey S. Crowley, Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy, and Rev. Joshua DuBois, Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

The summit was planned long before the Obama Administration’s announcement in early April of a new national campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness. While Black leaders lauded Pres. Obama for paying more attention to AIDS, they cautioned that even the $45 million the administration has committed to the AIDS awareness campaign is not enough.

Summit participants urged support of H.R. 1964, the National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act of 2009. That bill, introduced by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), lays out a comprehensive plan for the federal government to lead the way in marshaling resources and targeting them where they are most needed.

Butts noted that Black leaders carefully crafted the proposal and worked with Rep. Rangel to turn it into legislation.

“This is the first legislation to address HIV/AIDS in a comprehensive way, and it reflects the wisdom and experience of all these community leaders, who have been working in this field for more than three decades since HIV/AIDS has been a problem,” said C. Virginia Fields, President/CEO of NBLCA. The proposal emerged out of another gathering in 2007 organized by NBLCA that brought together leaders from all over the country to shape an agenda to fight HIV and AIDS.

Summit leaders urged Americans to contact their elected representatives and demand passage of the National Black Clergy for the Elimination of HIV/AIDS Act. Summit participant Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, pastor of the Third Baptist Church in San Francisco, noted that the number for Rangel’s bill, H.R. 1964, was symbolic. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave Black Americans a number of rights and freedoms.

“We can have all that and still not have the right to life and wellness,” Rev. Brown said. “The whole nation should be alarmed that, even in our nation’s capital, within the shadow of the White House and Congress, people are infected at an alarming rate.”

“HIV/AIDS represents a public health emergency in our nation today and the Black community is ground zero,” said Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, Senior Pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, who also attended the summit. “These numbers are unacceptable considering that HIV and AIDS are completely preventable. Our message is that, yes, we can defeat this epidemic if we have the will.”