Black forum targets health as top priority- 'Blueprint' for progress proposed

Abstract

Taking more personal responsibility for individual health and the well-being of the African-American community emerged as a lead strategy Saturday at the sixth annual "State of the Black Union" symposium. Presented by PBS television talk show host, Tavis Smiley, the all-day forum focused on how to improve health among blacks and how to create a national "African-American contract" to address political, economic, health and other concerns. "It would be a document, a blueprint for carrying our community forward," Smiley explained to about 6,000 people who attended the free event at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia.