The Good Doctors: The Medical Struggle for Human Rights and the Struggle for Justice in Health Care, by John Dittmer (Book Review):
http://www.book-views.com/articles/74/1/The-Good-Doctors-The-Medical-Struggle-for-Human-Rights-and-the-Struggle-for-Justice-in-Health-Care-by-John-Dittmer-Book-Review-/Page1.html
nancy oakes
I have two degrees in history. I live with Larry, my partner, and our two Bahamian potcake dogs. I've been a serious reader since the age of five, and spend my free time with my nose in a book. I am a member of Amazon Vine, LibraryThing's early reviewer program, and I keep my own book blog where I post serious reviews. I also keep a shelf at Goodreads as well as Facebook's Virtual Bookshelf. I love to cook and keep my social conscience at work. By nancy oakes
Published on 06/18/2009
The Good Doctors examines the creation, role, activism and struggles of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which started as an organization composed of medical & health professionals to assist civil rights workers in the south during the early 1960s.
The Good Doctors: The Medical Committee for Human Rights and the Struggle for Social Justice in Heal
Superbly written (and I would expect nothing less from this author, who
wrote one an excellent history of the American civil rights movement, Local People), The Good Doctors examines
the creation, role, activism and struggles of the Medical Committee for
Human Rights, which started as an organization to help out civil rights
workers in the south during the early 1960s. The committee's statement
of purpose:
"We are deeply concerned with the health needs of the socially deprived. It is our purpose to initiate activities to improve their health status and to provide professional support and assistance to organizations concerned with human rights." (62)
That is precisely what the members of this committee did, whether it be for civil rights workers in Mississippi or other places in the south, or to offer medical aid to those who marched in Selma (and other places where their struggles for basic civil rights turned violent). The Committee also worked tirelessly to gather evidence of racial discrimination in the cases of hospitals and medical officials who had taken federal funding but who were actively discriminating against African-Americans not only in the south, but in other parts of the country as well. Members were often attacked by law enforcement while they were in the Jim Crow-ruled American South, making their jobs even tougher but still they kept on with their work. The members set up health clinics and tried to get to the root of social injustice and help locals to gain some sense of self-empowerment. Members were there at Wounded Knee, at Alcatraz, at the Chicago Democratic Convention, at various anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and the list goes on. The Committee worked to try to get the message across to politicians, the AMA and other organizations that health care is not a privilege, but rather a human right, through their efforts to support a national health program.
The most impressive part of this book (not that the whole thing isn't great) was Dittmer's examination of how the MCHR went from its original conception to the "medical arm of the new left." From the Black Panthers on down to the Progressive Labor Party in the 1970s and beyond, Dittmer shows how national and local politics, infighting among factions in the local Committee chapters and at higher levels, and other factors changed the face of MCHR as the decades progressed. The changing face of Black activism, taking on a more "Black Nationalism" tone, the wave of ideologies of the revolutionary organizations and parties in the 1970s also led to changes in the organization. Dittmer does an excellent job in examining these phenomenon.
Finally, not only does Dittmer vew the Committee as an entity, he goes on in some detail to examine the motivations and backgrounds of the founding members, and those who joined later, as well as the hard and often dangerous being work done by individual members out in the field, anywhere where racism & poverty often kept people in ignorance or prevented people from receiving decent health care.
I can't really do this book justice in a few short paragraphs, but it is simply excellent. Anyone with any interest in a more in-depth look at the Civil Rights Movement itself, or as it is connected to the history of medicine in the US should read this book. I highly recommend it.
"We are deeply concerned with the health needs of the socially deprived. It is our purpose to initiate activities to improve their health status and to provide professional support and assistance to organizations concerned with human rights." (62)
That is precisely what the members of this committee did, whether it be for civil rights workers in Mississippi or other places in the south, or to offer medical aid to those who marched in Selma (and other places where their struggles for basic civil rights turned violent). The Committee also worked tirelessly to gather evidence of racial discrimination in the cases of hospitals and medical officials who had taken federal funding but who were actively discriminating against African-Americans not only in the south, but in other parts of the country as well. Members were often attacked by law enforcement while they were in the Jim Crow-ruled American South, making their jobs even tougher but still they kept on with their work. The members set up health clinics and tried to get to the root of social injustice and help locals to gain some sense of self-empowerment. Members were there at Wounded Knee, at Alcatraz, at the Chicago Democratic Convention, at various anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and the list goes on. The Committee worked to try to get the message across to politicians, the AMA and other organizations that health care is not a privilege, but rather a human right, through their efforts to support a national health program.
The most impressive part of this book (not that the whole thing isn't great) was Dittmer's examination of how the MCHR went from its original conception to the "medical arm of the new left." From the Black Panthers on down to the Progressive Labor Party in the 1970s and beyond, Dittmer shows how national and local politics, infighting among factions in the local Committee chapters and at higher levels, and other factors changed the face of MCHR as the decades progressed. The changing face of Black activism, taking on a more "Black Nationalism" tone, the wave of ideologies of the revolutionary organizations and parties in the 1970s also led to changes in the organization. Dittmer does an excellent job in examining these phenomenon.
Finally, not only does Dittmer vew the Committee as an entity, he goes on in some detail to examine the motivations and backgrounds of the founding members, and those who joined later, as well as the hard and often dangerous being work done by individual members out in the field, anywhere where racism & poverty often kept people in ignorance or prevented people from receiving decent health care.
I can't really do this book justice in a few short paragraphs, but it is simply excellent. Anyone with any interest in a more in-depth look at the Civil Rights Movement itself, or as it is connected to the history of medicine in the US should read this book. I highly recommend it.