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Ending the HIV Epidemic in the African American Community

Published

8 years ago

February 7, 2018

By Barbara Lee

Today, we celebrate National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day and reflect on the tremendous strides we have made in the fight against HIV since the epidemic first began. We are making progress towards an AIDS-free generation, but our work is far from over. To achieve this goal, we need to do more to address the unequal burden of this epidemic on the African American community.

Despite increased awareness campaigns and prevention efforts, African Americans are overrepresented in new transmissions.

According to the Center for Disease Control, black, gay, and bisexual men account for the highest number of new HIV diagnoses. Black gay men are at the highest risk of any population – research indicates that one in two will be diagnosed with HIV during their lifetime.

Black women are also disproportionately affected by HIV. The HIV diagnosis rate remains at a staggering 16 times that of white women, and five times the rate of Latinas. And the sad reality is that African Americans living with HIV not only have to bear the weight of HIV/AIDS stigma, but also racism.

Rather than treat these sobering statistics as a foregone conclusion, we should see them as a call to action. If we work together, we can change these numbers – and save lives.

If we are serious about ending the epidemic, we must work from a culturally sensitive framework to reduce disparities in access to education, testing and treatment.

We must honestly acknowledge the impacts of institutional and structural racism in healthcare, which is a major barrier to care in the African American community.

We must openly discuss the persistent impacts of societal and cultural stigma around HIV and AIDS. In order to provide quality preventative care, we need to change the outdated culture of fear and discrimination around the virus.

We need to ensure that students – in all classrooms – are taught comprehensive sex education, so that young people can take charge of their health from day one.

We must ensure resources are allocated to the communities with the highest need.

And, finally, we must recognize the inherent dignity of every human being. That includes the right of all people – regardless of race, zip code, or income – to have quality health care at an affordable price.

As advocates, we must leave no stone unturned and also recognize that our efforts must not end at our borders.

That is why I have worked with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, including President George W. Bush, to craft the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) which has saved millions of lives around the world.

We have blazed a trail forward, but President Trump is trying to roll back this progress.

Instead of advancing the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, President Trump has dismissed the President’s Advisory Council on HIV/AIIDS (PACHA) and failed to appoint a new director for the Office on National AIDS Policy. These actions have crippled our response to the crisis and sent a worrying signal to experts, activists and patients.

Coupled with the Trump Budget, which proposed one billion dollars in cuts to HIV funding, many are rightly questioning whether the Trump Administration is trying to undermine decades of bipartisan efforts to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

As co-founder and co-chair of the bipartisan Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus, I recently wrote to President Trump urging him to continue our longstanding commitment against the epidemic – but my letter has been met with silence.

We cannot allow inaction and stonewalling from this administration undermine the progress we have made over the past two decades. People are living long, happy lives with HIV – but they deserve a commitment from their government to end this epidemic.

I will continue to hold this administration accountable. I will not allow us to return to the days when the AIDS epidemic was willfully ignored by our government. And I will not be silent as people of color – and especially African Americans – bear the brunt of this public health crisis.

We can make an AIDS-free generation a reality, but we cannot leave anyone behind in the process.

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.