Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination

Between its founding in 1966 and its formal end in 1980, the Black Panther Party blazed a distinctive trail in American political culture. The Black Panthers most often are remembered for their revolutionary rhetoric and militant action. Sociologist Alondra Nelson will discuss an indispensable but lesser-known aspect of the organization’s broader struggle for social justice: health care. She describes how the Black Panther Party’s health activism — its network of free health clinics, its campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease and its challenges to medical discrimination — responded to how poor blacks were both underserved by mainstream medicine and overexposed to its harms. Nelson also discusses how the party’s understanding of health as a basic human right anticipated current debates about the politics of health and race.

This event will be held at PicNic Cafe (2665 Broadway btw. 101st & 102nd Sts.), 212-222-8222.