​Cazenovia has a human history of a thousand years or so. We remember our history in our place names, arrow head displays, statues, preservation activities, old home restorations, Lorenzo events, etc.   To anti-racists,  probably our most important historical event was The Fugitive Slave Convention, held here on August 21 and 22, 1850. 

The meeting opened on Aug. 21, at the Free Congregational Church of Cazenovia, now the Catherine Cummings Theater on Lincklaen Street.  The second day the overflow crowd moved to meet on the site of Grace Wilson’s apple orchard, on Sullivan Street, next to the Presbyterian Church. The meeting laid out the abolitionists' opposition to the proposed  Fugitive Slave Act, which would allow federal marshals to arrest and return runaway slaves and punish those who harbored them. Frederick Douglass,  Gerrit Smith, many more prominent abolitionists, and about 50 fugitive slaves attended the convention.

The Anti Racism Coalition of Cazenovia (ARC-C) will be holding a commemoration of the convention on Sunday, August 18 from 3-5 PM @ the site of the generally acknowledged second day of the convention's activities,  Grace Wilson's apple orchard, located @ 11 Sullivan St, Cazenovia, as well as @ the nearby Cazenovia First Presbyterian Church. The program is as follows-
At the site of race Wilson’s apple orchard, 3:00

1. Acknowledgment of Land and Place and Moment of Arriving- Anita Beuno
2. Opening words

• ​​Town of Cazenovia board member - Logistics of how 200 abolitionists and slaves arrived in Cazenovia back in 1850, and in a time of conflicting town culture did amazing abolitionist work
• Jayden Kaplan -  Overview of Abolition that led to 1850 Convention
• Wendy Everard -  Overview of the Convention that took place on August 20 and 21, 1850

    Moving to the First Presbyterian Chapel, until 5:00

1. Opening Words -  Phillip Hamilton- the importance of the Public Address and Gathering to/for Enslaved People)
2. Looking back to Slavery in Cazenovia - Hadley Briglin
3. In the present and looking forward - ARC-C members
4. Music: a song from the 1850 convention, led by Anita Beuno and Laura Reeder 
5. Imagining the future through Cards and Tree Installation Activity, led by Rebecca Garden and Laura Reeder
6. Breaking bread together: Hearthstone loaves (with gluten free option) and apples

This remarkable convention that took place in Cazenovia almost 200 years ago, is an event worth knowing about, celebrating, and learning from. Understanding this historical event can assist us in creating an intentional, equitable, and compassionate future

Since  much of this important historical event took place in an apple orchard, it seems appropriate to end with these two quotations-

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture  is like a tree without roots.”  MARCUS GARVEY
“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” MICHAEL CRICHTON

​— Louise Brown Smith

​The Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia (ARC-C) supports the decisive work of the Cazenovia Village and Town Boards as they united to take a stand against hate messages that were found in our community last week. They worked together to enlist state and local investigators, they composed a letter to the editor of the Cazenovia Republican ("Board Addresses Anti-Semitism," April 19, 2023, pg. 6), they encouraged community members who have experienced or are witness to hate incidents to document, report, and reach out for support.

Addressing and resisting hate may be difficult for people if they do not know procedures, if they  distrust authority, if they feel vulnerable, or underrepresented in a community. ARC-C is available at https://www.arc-c.org/ for anyone who needs an ally.

Education, policy change, and outreach can reduce incidents of hate. ARC-C hosts events and conversations for prevention and understanding.

Our next event will be a Chalk-the-Walk in gratitude to the Cazenovia College Community on Saturday, May 6 from 12-2 p.m. on the corner of Albany and Sullivan Streets. Everyone is welcome to join us in thanking the students, faculty, staff, and alumni who have brought diversity of ideas, cultures, and benefits to Cazenovia for almost two hundred years.

A festive gathering is not a cure. But, acknowledging the contributions that students bring and the integrity that faculty and staff demonstrate is an excellent step toward educating ourselves and each other about kindness over hate.

Thank You

The Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia

​By Louise Brown Smith

Affordable housing has entered our local consciousness. Governor Kathy Hochul has proposed a state plan to add 80,000 new affordable housing units in NYS. Construction of Cazenovia’s new affordable housing development, The Landing at Burke Meadow has already begun. 

We need to be curious. What is affordable housing? What are the root causes of housing insecurity? Are there precipitating events that have recently increased homelessness? How will programs to increase affordable housing affect Cazenovia? Will previously homeless citizens move to Cazenovia? How will housing insecurity be affected in NYS? 

Madison County and Syracuse both saw a substantial increase in the number of homeless people in 2022. In real numbers Madison County had 284 homeless people in 2022, up from 208 in 2021. In Onondaga, Cayuga, and Oswego counties, mostly in Syracuse, the number of homeless people has increased from 560 in 2022 to more than 800 in 2023. 

This recent increase in homelessness was precipitated by the COVID pandemic. COVID relief provided families living in or near poverty levels with increased food allowances, a moratorium on rent evictions, and increased financial relief for children. At the same time, families of people living in poverty, especially Black families, experienced more COVID disease and deaths than the general population. Recently, financial assistance has decreased and the cost of renting has increased. Inflation has impacted the cost of food and household necessities. At the same time, Black families often lost income due to the death of one of their members. Many of these families and individuals have been pushed into homelessness. The majority of people who became homeless in the past year live in families. 

There is a public perception that behavioral and mental health issues are major factors leading to homelessness. In reality, the vast majority of the 40 to 52 million people who struggle with mental illness in America do not experience homelessness. It’s possible of course that risk of homelessness is slightly increased for individuals experiencing mental illness or substance abuse, but substance use and mental health disorders are often consequences of housing instability, developing from the trauma of life on the streets. 

Racism is a root cause of homelessness. There are significant racial disparities in homelessness, particularly for our Black and Indigenous citizens. Centuries of discrimination, from forcibly taking land from Native Americans, to long marches and reservations, or from slavery, to Jim Crow, to redlining and mass incarceration, have generated intergenerational racial inequality that has created the conditions for wealth inequity and housing insecurity today. Systemic racial discrimination exists to this day in inflated mortgage rates, scarcity of low interest loans, availability and distribution of affordable housing, distribution of inherited wealth, and long ex
isting segregation in housing. Syracuse is one of our country’s most segregated cities. 

Presently in Cazenovia, there is one existing affordable housing development, Cazenovia Village Apartments. These apartments are available to people over 62 years of age, or to people who are disabled at any age. Rent for this property is based on 30 percent of a person’s gross adjusted income. Families or other people who have low incomes are not eligible to rent these apartments. 

Often in NYS, federal and/or state funding for affordable housing can be earmarked for elderly, disabled, or low-income housing. Local leaders have been able to control what their communities looked like. Often, a particular town or municipality chooses to provide housing for senior citizens, enabling them to keep racial segregation and poverty concentrated in cities. The governor’s housing proposal would give the state power to bypass local zoning laws and limit the power of local leaders. 

The Landing at Burke Meadows, now being constructed in the village of Cazenovia, will have 33 homes for adults aged 55 and older, and four townhome buildings with 16 apartments. Ten of the townhomes will be set aside for individuals and families in need of supportive services. These families may be newly homeless or facing homelessness. The supports needed could be food and/or health care. Some of the units will have a subsidy attached to them, so tenants will pay 30 percent of their income toward their rent.

It is important for us to be curious as our community grows and changes due to its expanding housing opportunities. We can be proud that we support new neighbors who need affordable homes in Cazenovia. As Matthew Desmond in his book Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City says, “the home is the center of life. It is a refuge from the grind of work, the pressure of school, and the menacer of the streets. We say that at home, we can ‘be ourselves.’ Everywhere else, we are someone else. At home, we remove our mask.”

An anonymous ARC-C member has a wishlist of items needed for their students at a Syracuse school this holiday season. There are necessities as well as items for holiday gifts. The wishlist is as follows: 

• non perishable food items
• uncrustables
• mac n cheese 
• pop tarts 
• hot pockets 
• lunch meat 
• bread
• hair gel (jam) 
• bracelet kits 
• shampoo 
• body sprays 
• water bottles 
• jewelry 
• summer sausage kits 
• small toys 
• earrings 
• necklaces 
• coffee mugs

Please send or drop off all items in bins at 4040 Nelson Road, Cazenovia NY 13035.

Thank you! 

By Louise Brown Smith

​Last weekend a few hundred enthusiastic or, perhaps, trembling students began a new term at Cazenovia College. They moved in with backpacks, books, pillows, and new expectations. The college campus is situated right in the middle of our village. The quad is lovely and the buildings seem to blend right in with the variety of our old established buildings. The college provides opportunity for community members to swim and to use the college gym. The Cazenovia Forum hosts a public lecture series on a variety of important issues in the college’s Catherine Cummings Theatre. Caz Welcomes Refugees is presently renting one of the college’s buildings for a family from Afghanistan. The students bring a cohort of youth and vigor to our village. They also bring a diversity of color, ethnicity, gender identity, economic  resources, and more, to our community. * 

Why do we hardly ever see the students? Do the students feel welcome in Cazenovia? What is our responsibility to the students?

Cazenovia is a small beautiful community miles away from our closest urban area. It’s easy to know our neighbors. Our children go to a small and excellent school and many freely walk to school, the lake, and the library. We have small shops lining our main street, and we know their owners. We gather for our farmers market, civil remembrances, and fun parades. We have a local police department. 

But, as Debby Irving says in the eye opening book, Waking Up White, if  we are curious in our belief systems, we always need to ask whose voices are present, what messages are being sent, and whose perspectives are being shared. Two years ago ARC-C sponsored a Black Lives Matter Chalk the Walk and BLM yard sign sale event. Lots of people from our community came as did many students from Caz College. It was fun and inspiring to see the beauty, humor, and seriousness present that day on our sidewalks and in our neighbors. One short conversation stood out to me. A friendly college student who was Black said to me, “This sidewalk chalk event and the BLM yard signs that are all around make me feel safer in Cazenovia.” 

Our town and village both have adopted Anti-Bias Policies which is definitely a good thing. Ibram X Kendi, in his book, How to Be an Anti-Racist, champions creating anti-bias policies as being more optimal in developing racial equality than is trying to change attitudes. As many astute Cazenovians have mused, a policy doesn’t really do anything unless people act on it. The Town of Cazenovia is presently developing procedures that will promote anti-bias in its own actions and throughout Cazenovia.

There have been a few incidents of racist graffiti in our town. One in the little park behind the library and one at the trail head at Nelson Swamp. These incidents were dealt with promptly: photographed, erased, and reported to the Village Board and to the police. During a discussion to follow up on the library graffiti at a village board meeting, it was thought that perhaps a couple teenage boys were responsible and to preserve their feelings of worth they were mildly reprimanded. Is this possibly an indication of critical race theory right here in our small town?

Do we know our implicit biases? Everyone has implicit biases. When the Harvard examination of implicit bias was given to 30 white members of the Syracuse Peace Council, surprisingly, all but one member tested as preferring white people. What should we do with our implicit biases?  How do we learn to be good neighbors to all? How should we act to be welcoming to everyone?  A micro- aggression is a comment or an action that unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a biased attitude. Do we unknowingly commit micro-aggressions? Are microaggressions something we do or can they also be something we omit?

This week, the week that Cazenovia students have gathered here for another year, one business in our village displayed a ‘Welcome Cazenovia College Students.”

I wonder how the students would feel if “Welcome Students” signs were visible up and down Albany Street. If there were Caz College “specials” in many of the shops. If there were kiosks and pages on social media listing organizations and businesses as resources for the students. If there was a welcome student event such as a chalk the walk, or free apples near the old orchard where Frederick Douglas gave a speech. Might we need to ask the college students what would make them feel welcome. I wonder how we would do that.

• 12% of Caz College students designate themselves as Black, 10% as Hispanic, 1% Asian, 68% White, 3% two or more races, 5% unknown, 54% receive Pell grants, 46% are first generation of their family to attend college - 2018/19

By Louise Brown-Smith
​
After many years of discussion and planning, the reconstruction of RT 81 through Syracuse is about to begin. A ground-level parkway will be built through the city and RT 481 will be expanded and re-built around the city. Parts of RT 690 will be re-built to facilitate access to Syracuse University, the medical complex, and adjacent areas of the city. Reconstruction will take place in two phases and take about six or more years. The first phase which will take about 3 years, is scheduled to begin this year and will involve expanding Rt 481 around the east side of Syracuse. RT 481 will be renamed RT I-81. The second phase will involve demolishing the current raised section and building a street level road through the city. This reconstruction will include a series of roundabouts, which have been shown to be safer than we think! Commuter times from suburbs and out-lying communities will be affected by only a matter of a few minutes. Air quality, housing options, city connectedness, and city business possibilities should all be enhanced.
​
More than 50 years ago, the Interstate 81 viaduct was built straight through a working-class Black neighborhood in Syracuse. It displaced long-time residents and ensured that poverty, pollution, and a lack of resources would hurt the community that lived in its path. Despite protest from residents, some district counselors, and some county legislators, the entire 15th ward was razed, and with it the homes and businesses of most of Syracuse’s black community. More than 1,300 families were displaced to make way for the construction of Interstate 81.

As a teenager when Rt 81 was built through Syracuse, I didn’t think much about it.  I knew its construction disrupted my regular driving routes through the city. Also I knew that my father and the fathers of my friends all read 2 newspapers a day and they and so many other smart adults seem to read the news about the construction of RT 81, then known as the Penn-Can Highway, as good news. Later, in a class on segregation and the “Salt City,” I learned that Syracuse’s municipal leaders encouraged the newspapers to print misleading information on the impact that Rt 81 would have on Syracuse’s Black population. The new highway was built to the satisfaction of Syracuse’s leaders and business population and to the dismay of Syracuse’s Black people. Home, businesses, and churches were destroyed. Remaining homes were often mere feet away from the highways noise and air pollution, protected by ugly berms at the end of their streets. Displaced residents had great difficulty finding new homes, due to higher costs and red lining.

Instead of bringing more opportunity to Syracuse’s downtown, the highway carried traffic—and tax dollars—out to the white suburbs. And when the 15th ward’s uprooted residents looked for new places to live, housing discrimination again limited them to specific houses and streets. Many of them ended up moving a bit south and formed a new black neighborhood, one that has fewer resources than the original.

The problems didn’t end there. The black residents nearest to I-81 suffered the brunt of traffic-related air pollution, which is linked to increased rates of asthma and impaired lung function, especially for the families living within a thousand feet of the highway. And because RT 81 physically divided the city in two, it further entrenched segregation and  concentrations of poverty. As reported in 2017 by the Wall Street Journal, Syracuse ranks among the most segregated metro areas in the country, and the 8th worst city in the country for Black Americans.

Cazenovia seems removed from Syracuse, and I love having such a lovely village to come home to. Many of us drive to Syracuse daily for work, medical services, music, theatre, and art events, etc.  What responsibility do Cazenovians have to consider the impact of the rebuilding of RT 81? Why should we be interested? How has the city of Syracuse benefitted us? Have we benefitted from the demise of another community? What is the impact of our dependance on one of our country’s most segregated communities? How do we feel as a community that highly values our abolitionist history yet lives closely with de facto segregation? If the privilege of white leaders contributed to destroying an entire community in the past, how best might we make future decisions?  How will we benefit from repairing some of the damage we have done to Syracuse’s Black community? Is rebuilding RT 81 a type of reparations?

Pete Buttigieg, the US Secretary of Transportation, visited Syracuse earlier this year. He said that he “wants projects like rebuilding Syracuse’s highway system to do more than reroute highway traffic around the city." He said it’s an opportunity to address past government decisions that often targeted and hurt Black communities. “It’s a chance,” he says, “to invest in those same areas that were affected by those historic mistakes.”
“We can’t change the past,” Buttigieg said during an interview with syracuse.com/The Post-Standard. “We have a lot of decisions to make about the future. And we can’t repeat the mistakes of the past and the harms of the past.”

“I hope that when I come back,” he said, “we see health is well-served, housing is well-served, community involvement is well-served.”

By Louise Brown-Smith

Back in February, as a part of Black History Month,  our community participated in a book read, sponsored by the Anti-Racism Coalition of Cazenovia, ARC-C. Stamped from the Beginning, by Ibram X Kendi and Stamped from the Beginning, Racism, Anti Racism and You, by Ibram X Kendi and Jason Reynolds were the books chosen. The Cazenovia Public Library provided copies. The Cazenovia Republican provided wonderful coverage of this event. Both our adult reading group and, just recently, the student group have finished reading and discussing. This report is to fulfill the responsibility to report back to our community the impact of all that reading and conversing.

Alan Smith, Wendy Everard, and Louise Brown-Smith led a thoughtful and lively group of adults in a high school class room, both in-person and on zoom. About a dozen adults took part throughout the month of February.  The participants in this group read either the “big” book, Stamped from the Beginning,”  or the young adult version, Stamped, Racism, Anti-Racism and You. Some of the adults read both.

Kurt Wheeler led a group of high school students in reading and discussing Stamped, Racism Anti- Racism and You. They read and met weekly through May to discuss the readings. 

Both groups found the books to be important in understanding racism, its history, and how it impacts our country. As one reader said, “The books clearly emphasized how racism is all about power and that the first step to dismantling racism is learning the long, repetitive—and still being written—history.” In assessing the differences in the take aways of the two groups, it seems that both groups were grateful for learning the long and on-going history of racism. 

The student group focused on learning the ideas and progression of racism and how to engage critically in present day progress in anti racism. As one student wrote,

“Kendi and Reynolds collaborated to share a multitude of ideas with a simplicity that makes them accessible to everyone and an importance that will impact everyone. They clearly emphasized how racism is all about power and that the first step to dismantling racism is learning the long, repetitive—and still being written—history. The book uncovered many key events to be the work of assimilationists. It brought awareness to how you can say a few truthful things yet still be telling a false story by leaving out essential pieces of information and drawing purposive conclusions. The book is meant to be actively engaged with. We talked about the necessities and harms of gradual progress; we discussed questions of how exactly progress should be measured, especially when self-serving intentions and intersectional issues like classism, education, or colorism come into play.”

The group of adults took away a great appreciation of their past ideas of racism and how to look at them in a new light.

• “I was struck by how differently an event or topic can be perceived by someone with another set of experiences. Even on topics that I thought I could accurately anticipate the author's point of view, there was always an interesting twist or lesson learned.”
• “Reading "Stamped" opened my mind to more and different ways to consider racism and bias in our culture. The discussion that I attended with the group members opened my mind even further.  Everyone had a fresh and interesting take on the subject matter. Being able to contemplate new ideas, or old ideas in a new light, is the key to understanding how to improve oneself and our society, I believe. Our discussion was important in that regard.”

The students were eager to learn factual knowledge and how to engage in mind expanding discussions. They brought “rigor and thoughtfulness that the students to the process. They took turns facilitating each session and each of the student leaders had multiple thought-provoking ideas and questions ready every week.” Their “biggest challenge was never having enough time to get to all the issues that were raised.”

The adults often discussed how they themselves changed in their ability  and desire to engage in anti-racism activities. One adult became more comfortable engaging in conversation with Black people. Another, a teacher, felt ready to engage with her students when racist incident occurred in her class. She has begun to pursue the formation of an anti-racism group in her high school. Another expressed the need to learn more about present day bias and has attended community forums on racism. One group member wrote, “I loved the discussions I was a part of and as a result I attended (and bought the book) featured in The Cazenovia Forum lecture, “Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause,” presented by author Ty Seidule.”

Everyone who read, opened their minds, learned, debated, led, and discussed in the two reading groups expects to continue to learn more and to do more. They sometimes felt overwhelmed by the quantity of history and present day evidence that chronicled “…the systematic dehumanization of Blacks and other races over the course of six centuries for profit, power and supremacy. Black people today still are living with this “stone in their shoe.” All together probably about 20 Cazenovia community members participated in these 2 reading groups. That’s about 1% of our community - not an insignificant number. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” 

​Hello ARC-C Community,

The past few weeks have left us all without words. In the time that our small, dedicated group was trying to collect our feelings about the anti-Black tragedy in Buffalo, another young white male decided to attack children in Texas. Like you, like everyone, we are having trouble processing. Therefore, we are gathering on Sunday, May 29 at 7 PM at Cazenovia's Lakeland park. You can bring a candle if you'd like, and probably a box of tissues. At least together, we can grieve. 

Here's a poignant statement from the dean of the Washington National Cathedral. The title is: America's Gun Problem: Horrific and Incomprehensible. It brought a moment of clarity when the thought of grieving, yelling, screaming, and attentiveness were failing us. 

In the coming weeks, we will gather info to share about our representatives and their contact information so that when we find our voices again, we will know what to say and whom to say it to. 

Please read on for our original statement about our brothers and sisters in Buffalo who continue to grieve. 

​

Try to attend salt/city/blues​, a moving theatre piece by local playwright, Kyle Bass, that will be at Syracuse Stage from June 9–June 26. We'll lead a discussion in the fall to discuss the challenges of I-81 and the division it has caused in Syracuse.

"How does a fractured family heal when unresolved emotions of the past color the present? How can a city reshape itself if it means tearing open old, still-tender wounds? And where in a diverse but segregated city can communities find common ground, mutual dignity, and a true sense of home? These questions collide into Yolonda Mourning, an independent consultant on a vast project to take down a span of highway that has long divided Salt City. When she leaves her husband and teenage son and moves to the heart of trendy downtown, a diverse cast of characters forces Yolonda to confront Salt City’s complicated history around race, class, and urban renewal, and to reckon with her role as architect of the broken bridges in her own family. Moving, funny, poignant, and current, salt/city/blues is a fresh, contemporary, new play set in a fictionalized Syracuse and to the music of the blues."

ARC-C Summer Book Club! 
Our rolling summer book club pick is Heather McGhee's book: The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. If you'd like to check it out, Caz Library has graciously put some on order! Just ask Elisha at the front desk. You can also buy it from Mahogany Books, a Black-owned book store in D.C. If you want a teaser, listen to or read THIS ARTICLE with Ezra Klein and Heather McGhee.

Hello ARC-C Community!
 
You asked! We pondered!

At our last meeting, one of our members raised some really great questions: 
How widely known is it that “Race” is a man-made concept? That it hasn’t always been in existence? I only learned of this in the last couple of years. And I have no idea where I fall in the spectrum of learning.
How aware is our population of the pervasiveness of racism? That it’s baked into all strata of American life. That White Supremacy doesn’t only exist within the KKK, Proud Boys, other far-right extremists, etc., but is participated in by every white citizen.
How do we educate/raise awareness of these fundamental issues?
We're using these questions for our April meeting conversation! No pre-reading and, as always, everyone is welcome!

The author of the acclaimed book, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, is the spring speaker for Cazenovia College’s Washburn Distinguished Lecture Series.

Dr. Gretchen Sorin, distinguished professor and director of the Cooperstown Graduate Program at the State University of New York College at Oneonta, is scheduled to appear on campus for the Wednesday, April 13 event. The in-person lecture will take place in the Catherine Cummings Theatre on Lincklaen Street on campus. It begins at 2:45 p.m. and runs through 4:00 p.m. Dr. Sorin will conduct a book signing at the conclusion of the lecture.

One year ago there was a stunning report in the Syracuse Post Standard, headlined: “Wary of hospitals, pregnant Black women in  Syracuse look to doulas.” This article went on to report a finding of Mariel Rivera, a certified doula and SU doctoral student, that “the statistics show that even if you are a Black woman with a PhD, the likelihood is that a white woman with a high school diploma would survive pregnancy and  childbirth more than you would.” 

Pregnancy and childbirth is a wonderful, but arduous, journey for any woman without the added burden of systemic racism. For many Black  women, pregnancy and birth are a matter of life and death. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that Black women are 2 to 3 times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. There are many reasons for this unsettling statistic. Even though maternal deaths are considered mostly preventable, Black women  develop cardiomyopathy, pulmonary embolism, and high blood pressure at a higher incidence than do white women. 

In addition, pre-term births are one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the world, and are highest in Black, Pacific Islanders, and  Native Americans. The World Health Organization reports about one million children under the age of 5 die because of complications due to  prematurity. Prematurity increases the chances that a child will have a serious disability or a chronic medical condition. The effects of  prematurity even linger in many adults. 

Researchers have been working to tease out the many reasons for these disparities. One reason that remains is that gynecological therapies were developed by using enslaved women for surgical experimentation. Illogically, to this day implicit biases remain so that many medical providers believe that Black women feel less pain than white women, or that they take less care of themselves, or that they are more lax in following medical advice. In the USA access to adequate medical care is dependent on gender, wealth, race, and  sexuality. The effects of historic red-lining practices remain. In Rochester, N.Y., birth certificates between the years of 2005 to 2018 reveal that the neighborhoods with the greatest number of babies born  prematurely corresponded to old red-lining maps. Access to medical  care, grocery stores, clean air, public education, and good jobs, remain limited in historically redlined neighborhoods. 

An interesting, sort of wonderful story, in all this is that last year, a  medical student and illustrator, Chidiebere Ibe, tweeted a picture of a Black fetus within the womb of a Black mother. It was the first medical  illustration of a Black mother and her unborn baby that most people  had ever seen! It went viral.

Interested in learning more about these issues? Take part in our upcoming meeting, "Structural Racism, Medical Racism, and Health Inequities: The Work of Dorothy Roberts"
— Louise Brown Smith