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MILESTONE: CIVIL RIGHTS Milestone Symposium Reflects on Civil Rights, Communities, Work Yet to Be Done The battle for civil rights is far from over, according to advocates past and present who were gathered at HMS for the sixth Milestone event, "Reflection in Action: Building Healthy Communities." The day-long program on Feb. 4, sponsored by Joan Reede and her Office for Diversity and Community Partnership, examined and celebrated civil rights, social justice, and diversity both at HMS and in the global community. Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP, urged local students to continue working for change and to make time to contribute to the community. (Photo by Liza Green, HMS Media Services) Keynote speaker Julian Bond, chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, recounted his participation in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He connected with the audience, largely made up of students from area schools who were participating in the event, by telling stories from his years growing up. Instead of learning life lessons during his teens from his favorite television program American Bandstand, Bond turned to the news. In September 1957, when he was 17 years old, the struggle to integrate nine black students into the high school in Little Rock, Ark., was making headlines. Their courage, strength, and determination were impressive, he said, and he decided to follow their example when living his own life. Bond urged the students to embrace these same values, to work for change, and to make time to contribute to the community. "If you sit and watch the world go by and see things you don't like," he said, "you have no one to blame but yourself." "As doctors, we have a chance to speak out as the champions of the underprivileged. That gets more attention when it comes with an MD degree." --Leon Eisenberg Following Bond's talk, a panel discussion, "How Far We Have Come: Changing the Face of Health Care," allowed three instrumental players in the Civil Rights Movement to share their experiences. Jack Geiger, the Arthur C. Logan professor emeritus of community medicine, City University of New York; Alvin Poussaint, HMS professor of psychiatry; and Leon Eisenberg, the Maude and Lillian Presley professor emeritus of social medicine at HMS, provided insight into the medical aspects of the movement. As a young civil rights worker, for example, Geiger responded to the lack of medical care in rural Mount Bayou, Miss., by building the first community health center in the United States. Eisenberg explained the origins and values of affirmative action at HMS and actively encouraged more diversity in the faculty. "Human rights last only as long as people are willing to fight for them," Eisenberg said. "As doctors, we have a chance to speak out as the champions of the underprivileged. That gets more attention when it comes with an MD degree." Considering the future of socially responsible medicine was the focus of the second panel discussion, "How Far We Have to Go: Achieving Further Change." JudyAnn Bigby, HMS associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital; Margarita Alegria, HMS visiting professor of psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital; Lisa Iezzoni, HMS professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; and Paul Farmer, the Maude and Lillian Presley professor of social medicine at HMS, all commented on their experiences with injustice in a modern context. Bigby described the investigation of a community group that surveyed price differentials at local grocery stores in both affluent and poor neighborhoods of greater Boston. The group found that it was considerably more expensive to shop in the poor areas, and the higher costs limited the nutritious choices for minority families with little money to spare. This restriction sparks a chain reaction, she said. If people cannot afford to eat a healthy diet, further medical problems are apt to arise. Bigby also recommended that cultural competence be a more prominent factor in the education of medical students. "We will need them to work collectively toward a better future and to develop strategies for addressing the real and significant issues that we talk about today," she said. Farmer agreed and echoed the sentiments of all the speakers at the Milestone event. "The only thing that has moved the human rights movement forward has been courage," he said. The final Milestone symposium, "Moving Drugs Forward: Reaching the Patient," will be held on March 9. For more information or to register, visit www.hms.harvard.edu/milestone. --Leah Gourley