A generation after the triumphs of the civil rights movement,
African Americans confront a health crisis as severe as any in
their history. A spiraling number of HIV-AIDS cases in the black
community has caused many African Americans to wonder, as did
black health activists 70 years ago, whether their "struggle for
health might be considered an effort of the race to survive."
The reticence of many mainstream black leaders on the HIV-AIDS
crisis aggravates the problem. There are signs of fresh
political activity, most prominently from Rep. Maxine Waters
(D-Los Angeles), but nothing on the scale of African American
health activism from 1915-50. Few are aware of the 35-year
campaign to promote black health, under the banner of National
Negro Health Week, that succeeded in making the U.S. public-
health system universally accountable. The spread of AIDS to
minority communities demands a commensurate response today. In
Waters' view, the L.A. Board of Supervisors' recent declaration
of an AIDS emergency in the count