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“The Power to Heal,” Medicare and the Civil Rights Struggle, Documentary narrated by Danny Glover. Sunday, July 30, 2023, 2:00 pm, Centennial Room, Louisville Free Public Library, 301 York
July 30, 2023 @ 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
In celebration of Medicare’s 58th Birthday, Kentuckians for Single Payer Health Care presents:
“The Power to Heal,” Medicare and the Civil Rights Struggle
Documentary narrated by Danny Glover.
Sunday, July 30, 2023, 2:00 pm
Centennial Room, Louisville Free Public Library, 301 York
As we celebrate we will continue the struggle to end the privatization of Medicare, to remove the profits from health care, and to win an Improved Medicare for All.
POWER TO HEAL tells a poignant chapter in the historic struggle to secure equal and adequate access to healthcare for all Americans. Central to the story is the tale of how a new national program, Medicare, was used to mount a dramatic, coordinated effort that desegregated thousands of hospitals across the country practically overnight.
Before Medicare, disparities in access to hospital care were dramatic. Less than half the nation’s hospitals served black and white patients equally, and in the South, 1/3 of hospitals would not admit African-Americans even for emergencies.
Using the carrot of Medicare dollars, the federal government virtually ended the practice of racially segregating patients, doctors, medical staffs, blood supplies and linens. POWER TO HEAL illustrates how Movement leaders and grass-roots volunteers pressed and worked with the federal government to achieve a greater measure of justice and fairness for African-Americans.
Through the voices of the men and women who experienced disparities and fought against them, POWER TO HEAL introduced a broad, prime-time national audience to a missing link in the Civil Rights Movement — a struggle over healthcare from a half-century ago, that raises questions that resonate today: is healthcare a human right? Must the federal government intervene to ensure equality?