AHA Session 91
Friday, January 5, 2024: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Powell I (Parc 55, Third)
Chair:
K. T. Ewing, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa
Papers:
Comment:
Aaisha Haykal, College of Charleston
Session Abstract
Across the long 20th century, Black newspapers remained at the forefront of informing Black citizens around the United States of social, political, and cultural issues that affected their everyday lives, including health, health care, and well-being. Health communication in the Black Press encompassed a wide range of issues that included instructing children and youth about the best ways to care for their developing bodies, informing readers about educational opportunities in the medical professions, and connecting readers to nutrition-related health resources. This panel will explore how Black newspapers across the 20th century served as a national clearinghouse for health information and resources, while also responding to the regional nuances and multifaceted health needs of diverse readership bases across the United States. Beginning with audiences in the urban North, this paper examines how the Defender Junior, The Chicago Defender’s children’s pages, both offered information regarding the importance of bolstering the health of Black children as well as contained voices from children who remained a pivotal part of these health projects. We then turn to examine how The Chicago Defender played a pivotal role in Black health in the West. During the early twentieth century, The Defender actively encouraged readers to patronize Black dentists, pharmacists, and physicians in the Greater Kansas City Area. Additionally, The Defender reported on health clinics in the area and promoted Dr. Booker T. Washington's National Negro Health Week beginning in 1915. This section will examine The Chicago Defender's role in the development of Black medical facilities in the West during the first half of the twentieth century. Moving into the mid-20th century, the final paper explores how rural readers in the U.S. South viewed The Defender as a source of health information, particularly around the topics of personal nutrition, canning and preservation techniques, and home food and garden cultivation. Drawing upon letters from subscribers, this paper also explores how readers of the weekly nutrition column came to view their everyday choices surrounding local food consumption within the context of national and transnational political movements across the first half of the twentieth century.
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