It has been long documented that African Americans have been historically under-served when it comes to medical treatment and over-represented in medical research abuse. Further, despite a century of progress in medicine, African Americans still live shorter lives than their white counterparts, in some states, by more than a decade.
In this lesson, students will explore the past events that have shaped the health care in the African American community and learn about one individual's work that has the capacity to change the future of medical treatment for African Americans through epigenetics - the study of inherited traits.
NOTE : In the excerpted chapter from Dr. Maya Angelou's book, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, on p. 189, the N-word is used. Please be thoughtful about how you prepare for and respond to student needs regarding the use of this language.
Materials
- Watch PBS NewsHour's Memphis churches rally to close disparity in breast cancer survival rates
- History of African Americans and health care – True and false
- History of African Americans and health care - Teacher answer sheet
- The life and death stakes of racialized health inequality: A history - informational text
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou- chapter excerpt * On page 189, the N-word is used by Dr. Maya Angelou while recounting a story of her experience of racism in health care.
- Articles to help educators be thoughtful about the use of the N-Word:
Straight Talk about the N-Word article , Facing the N-Word article
- Tuskegee experiment - scientific journal article
- Infant mortality rate - math-oriented activity
- Sterilization in North Carolina - text
- Dr. W. Montague Cobb - biographical text
- Dr. Charles Drew - biographical video
- State level variation in racial disparities in life expectancy - academic journal article
- More African Americans need to participate in clinical trials - article by David Satcher
- Mental Health Care: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity - report
- List of sources consulted for this lesson plan
Warm Up Activity
As an introduction to disparity in health care by race, show students the PBS NewsHour video "Memphis churches rally to close disparity in breast cancer survival rates". Once the video is over ask students the following questions as a class: Put students into groups then hand out the History of African Americans and health care – True and false to students and give them time to complete it. Once everyone is finished, read the answers from History of African Americans and health care - Teacher answer sheet . Ask students if anything surprised them and allow for a short time for students to process what they learned.
- What about the news story surprised you?
- What might be some of the reasons that African American women are dying at significantly higher rates than white women? Use information from the video to support your answer.
- What solutions might help close the gap?
- What do you know about the history of health care and African Americans in the United States?
Main Activity
1. Pass out The life and death stakes of racialized health inequality: A history - informational text have students read it within their groups and give them time to pause and answer the questions and explain how the fact would affect them.
3. Now pass out the excerpted chapter , I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. NOTE : On page 189 of this text, the N-word is used. Please refer to the resources in the materials section to help you decide how you want to proceed. Have students read the chapter to themselves and them allow them to discuss it afterwards in their small group. Some suggested questions are: 4.Bring students back as a class and start a discussion about what they learned. Based on time and student interest you may want to dig deeper into the following topics: 5. Next, provide students with the following in order to help them understand the work that African Americans did themselves in order to create a medical system that would provide them with quality health care: 6. Give the students a simplified version of the Surgeon General's
- Were you surprised at what happened in the book to Maya Angelou and her Grandmother?
- What emotions did you feel as you read this chapter?
- What does the story tell you about the conditions African Americans faced to receive basic medical care in the South at that time?
- Would you have tried to handle the situation differently, how?
- Tuskegee experiment - scientific journal article
- Infant mortality rate - math-oriented activity
- Sterilization in North Carolina - text and video
- Dr. W.Montague Cobb - biographical text
- Dr. Charles Drew - biographical video
on Mental Health Care: Culture, Race and Ethnicity to make them aware of the specific disparity seen in the area of mental health.
7. Finally, in order to reinforce the importance of the critical work that is being done by African Americans to advance health care in their communities and beyond, introduce students to PhD candidate Christoper Cross through:
- Christopher Cross and the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory - biography , Q & A and vocabulary sheet
Conclusion
Hand out the assessment questions and have students answer in complete sentences.
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Special thanks to Dr. Alondra Nelson for her help on this project.
Special thanks to Christopher Cross and the W. Montague Cobb Research Laboratory for their contribution to this lesson plan.
Special thanks to the family of the late Dr. Maya Angelou and Azadeh Sinai for their permission to share chapter 24 of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings with our audience.
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