Martin Luther King
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter - Martin Luther King Jr.
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Martin Luther King Jr., Health Equity, and the Five Life Standards
The racial health disparities that existed when MLK Jr confronted them was not a new problem nor has the problem ceased to exist. In March 1966, Dr. King spoke at a Convention of the Medical Committee for Human Rights held in Chicago in March 1966, stating: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane”...
Today the disparities may not be as apparent as they were during Dr. King’s time. There are no officially segregated hospitals, physician’s offices, clinics and doctors and other other medical care providers come from all spectrum of people. But disparities still exist.
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The Fight for Health Care Has Always Been About Civil Rights
It was a cold March night when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. turned his pulpit towards health care. Speaking to a packed, mixed-race crowd of physicians and health-care workers in Chicago, King gave one of his most influential late-career speeches, blasting the American Medical Association and other organizations for a “conspiracy of inaction” in the maintenance of a medical apartheid that persisted even then in 1966.
The Kind of Revolution That Martin Luther King Jr. Envisioned
King’s words remind us that injustice leaves a legacy. It creates inequalities that do not simply disappear. And we need to use that knowledge to chart the long and winding path toward justice.
Half a century later, Dr. Martin Luther King’s black health advocacy is still relevant
While Dr. King might not have used any of the phrases – like targeted universalism, racial disparities or health inequities – that have become associated with the health and racial justice movements we lead today, he also did not mince words: Racist policies lead to the suffering and premature deaths of people of color. It happened then and it’s still happening now.
Health Equity Reflections on Martin Luther King Jr. Day
King understood the magnitude of healthcare’s failure to deliver appropriate, accessible and affordable healthcare services to all Americans. In a 1966 speech to the Medical Committee for Human Rights in Chicago, he asserted the following, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”
How the distortion of Martin Luther King Jr.‘s words enables more, not less, racial division within American society
The misuses of King are not accidental. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a sanitized version of King was part of a conservative political strategy for swaying white moderates to support President Ronald Reagan’s reelection by making King’s birthday a national holiday.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Public Health
Regardless of the specific words King used, which we may never know for sure, a critical element is King’s embedding of these words in an explicit call to action, a “direct action” campaign that included legal recourse to force hospitals to end discrimination.
MLK is revered today but the real King would make white people uncomfortable
Martin Luther King Jr was a walking, talking example of everything this country despises about the quest for Black liberation.
MLK’s Connection to Healthcare Reform
Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to improvements and built a framework for further civil rights activists, discrimination did not end in its entirety. Even today, decades after the act was passed, people of color continue to make their voices heard, drawing attention to the reality that more work must be done to make the nation inclusive and equal. The Black Lives Matter movement, and its call to end racism, primarily in the way of police brutality and violence, is a recent example of this.
Reflecting on Dr. King's Legacy and the Field of Public Health
Martin Luther King Jr. famously claimed that health inequity “is the most shocking and the most inhumane” of all forms of inequality. Dr. King also knew that undoing that inequity, or unraveling the many negative effects of racism on human health, was no easy task.
Tracking Down Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Words on Health Care
The genesis of Dr. King's statement on unequal health care began to appear uncomfortably similar to that of another famous MLK "quotation" from the year before: "I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy."
What MLK and Malcolm X would do today
So it becomes clear when we read and we study King and we ask, “Why was he assassinated?” This is a man who represented global political mobilization, and he had the moral power of the entire world behind him. If King had stayed in Washington, DC, in the summer of ’68, the election, this country would have been transformed — that I guarantee.
Martin Luther King Jr., Health Equity, and the Five Life Standards
Take a look around and the statistics will tell you that there is still much work to be done to have a just healthcare system. Whether or not health equity is a reality or close to being one is a dream we can all share as Dr. King shared his dream.

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