A few hundred people filled rooms for the Black Men’s Health Equity Conference, which was held at Tougaloo College Saturday. Men of all ages and some women were given pamphlets that highlighted significant health challenges often faced by Black men in Mississippi.
Dr. Sandra Melvin is the chief executive officer of the Institute for the Advancement of Minority Health, which put on the event.
Shamira Muhammad
Black Men's Health Equity Conference
“I think there is an urgency because health outcomes are not often addressed among black men, and often some of the reasons that black men die earlier can be prevented if they knew that they needed to be screened,” Melvin said. “We have lots of initiatives for women and children, but we often don't include the black man, who is an important part of the family unit.”
Black men in Mississippi disproportionately suffer from chronic disease, cancer and stroke.
Panels at the conference focused on lung cancer, chronic disease and even Black leadership in medicine. Conference attendees received health insights from medical professionals, researchers, and journalist Roland Martin, the conference’s keynote speaker.
“We have to help people in a very micro way, not make this complicated and we make it much more digestible for them to begin,” he said. “We just need folks to start. So if we can get people to start, and then they develop that habit, then I think you're going to see the kind of changes that are necessary.
Shamira Muhammad, MPB News
Shamira Muhammad, MPB News
Shamira Muhammad, MPB News
The event featured free health screenings, meals and discussions on mental health. Canton resident James Sims says the event made him feel more confident.
“That confidence is not necessarily in medicine, but it was in myself,” he said. “Of taking ownership of myself and trying to make sure that I do what is necessary, what is needful for myself.”
Organizers of the conference say they plan to track the impact of the event on black men’s health outcomes over the next year.