Office of Louis W. Sullivan, M.D.
U.S. Secretary Health and Human Services (1989-93)
3401 Landings South Drive, Atlanta GA 30331
For Immediate Release
June 9, 2023
Contact: Gayle E. Converse gcprod@bellsouth.net 404.989.0534
WE’LL FIGHT IT OUT HERE Wins National Book Award
New York, New York – Racism in the United States health care system has been undermining Black health care professionals and exacerbating health disparities among Black Americans for centuries. A new book chronicling that history is receiving national attention.
We’ll Fight It Out Here: A History of the Ongoing Struggle for Health Equity (David Chanoff & Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., October 11, 2022, Johns Hopkins University Press) is the recipient of the prestigious “Sons & Daughters of US Middle Passage (SDUSMP) Phillis Wheatley Book Award in the Historical, Historical Events, Nonfiction Category.” The awards ceremony was held June 9, 2023.
The book, written by scholar and author Dr. David Chanoff and former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., is the story of a vital coalition movement that enhanced the nation’s understanding of health inequities in the United States.
The need that bound together a small group of Black institutions nearly a half-century ago has precipitated a significant amount of minority health care legislation since then.
Health inequities became a mainstream issue after a group of health professions schools at Historically Black Colleges and Universities came together. We’ll Fight It Out Here tells the story of how the Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (AMHPS) was founded by this coalition and the hard-won influence it earned in American politics and health care. Chanoff and Sullivan detail the struggle for equity — and the bias and disparities that continue to be volatile national issues. The authors outline the history of health care for Black Americans from Colonial and pre-emancipation times to today. Through extensive research, historic photos and more than 70 interviews with key policy makers, We’ll Fight It Out Here chronicles this critical fight for legislative and policy change.
A key document in America’s history of medical apartheid, We’ll Fight It Out Here is also a roadmap through the challenges of healthcare lawmaking, with ongoing relevance for the country’s struggle to achieve health equity.
About the Authors
David Chanoff (SOMERVILLE, MA), a visiting scholar at Brandeis University, is the coauthor of more than twenty books, including Seeing Patients: Unconscious Bias in Health Care, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and other publications. Louis W. Sullivan, M.D. (ATLANTA, GA) is a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is the founding dean and president emeritus of Morehouse School of Medicine. He is the author, with Marybeth Gasman, of The Morehouse Mystique (Hopkins Press, 2012). Chanoff and Sullivan collaborated on Sullivan’s award-winning (2014 NAACP Image Award) autobiography, Breaking Ground: My Life in Medicine (University of Georgia Press, 2014). The book was a 2014 finalist in the Wheatley Awards and was named a “Book Every Georgian Should Read” by the Library of Congress Center for the Book.
About AMHPS
The Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, Inc. (AMHPS) was formed in 1977 to provide a means by which a national minority health agenda could be effectively addressed. It is comprised of twelve historically Black medical, dental, pharmacy, and veterinary schools.
AMHPS, established in 1977, is a 501(C)(3) nonprofit, educational, scientific, advocacy, and charitable organization. It works to secure support for professional education, research and prevention programs for member institutions of the Association. The work of this coalition of Black health schools continues, supporting the training of more health professionals from minority backgrounds and advancing issues related to health equity. Home | Association of Minority Health Professions Schools (amhps.org)
Acclaim for We’ll Fight it Out Here
“We’ll Fight It Out Here is a David and Goliath legislative story of how a small and dedicated group of health professionals battled to eliminate health disparities and push through Congress legislation that opened up first-rate medical care to African Americans. It is a historical gem of how participants in the legislative process in Washington can be persuaded to do the right thing for those in greatest need.”
—Joseph A. Califano Jr., former US Secretary of Health Education and Welfare, author of America’s Health Care Revolution
“This inspiring, engaging, and informative book describes not only the systemic barriers African Americans faced but also the extraordinary agency Black leaders demonstrated in overcoming some of these obstacles. At a time when health disparities have gained national attention, this is a story of solutions and hope, beautifully told.”
—Kenneth M. Ludmerer, MD, author of Let Me Heal: The Opportunity to Preserve Excellence in American Medicine, Washington University