African American Legends; C. Virginia Fields, Pres./CEO, National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS

The African-American legend series highlights the accomplishments of blacks and areas as voters, politics, sports, aviation, health, business, literature, and religion. We'll explore how African-Americans have succeeded in areas where they've been previously excluded because a segregation, racism, and lack of opportunity. I'm your host, Dr. Roscoe C. Brown Jr., and with us today, as see Virginia Fields, the CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. Welcome to African-American Legends, Virginia. Thank you. Thank you so much, Roscoe, and I just want to thank you for continuing to bring this to the attention in the forefront and keep the awareness of what the legends have done, but equally is important of what we must continue to do. And because I was one of the people that helped start blacker back in 1987, I am so pleased that you have followed Deborah Heritage Fouss as a leader, and now you're providing new energy to keep this going.

Not that Debbie didn't have energy, so I'll say it. Absolutely. Now, where do we stay now? What do blacker started in New York, now it's national? Tell us about what blacker is doing generally now. Well, as you said, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS was started by Deborah Frazier House, a woman of tremendous energy and commitment to address an HIV-AIDS within the black community some 22 years ago when people were not even focused on that. That you're talking about. Not even talking about it, I think it's as one of the founders you know that people were pretty okay thinking, okay, this is a gay man's white disease. Should have been equally as concerned about it, but we did not see that level of concern in the black community. Deborah Frazier House, you and members of the National Urban League saw what was happening and came together and out of that was the Black Leadership Commission on AIDS was born. And our mission really, as you know, is to educate, mobilize, and empower leaders at the

local level to fight and meet challenges of HIV-AIDS within the African American community. Imagine most prominently with members of the black clergy because we understand the black community, the voices of clergy members were still very powerful in terms of encouraging people to get tested, to be mindful of own behavior and a whole host of issues. So that's how we started. Let's go back to the black clergy because when AIDS epidemic began, many blacks were saying it was a gay disease, it wasn't Christian, we shouldn't be involved in this. But under the leadership of some of the ministers and the Black Leadership Commission, they began to understand that this is a social issue and it's not one to be stigmatized. And that was the first thing we had to deal with to remove the stigma about AIDS and then do the education as to what AIDS is and what can be done with it.

Because at one time it was considered to be a death sentence, but now because of the medication and the prevention and so on, it isn't a death sentence, it is a dangerous disease. And I want to just speak to two points you made. Number one, unfortunately, the stigma still exists. In far too many areas of our community. Number two, the black churches and leaders among our black clergy were not as swift or as fast to come to the forefront in responding to what was happening to members of their congregation, people in our own communities. But a whole lot has happened since then, which we can talk about. And actually the chairman of your board is Reverend Calvin Butts. Absolutely. The Dr. Reverend Calvin O'Buts has really taken a major leadership role in this along with Reverend Alfonso Wyatt, who is chair of the affiliate here in New York City.

But you had asked a moment ago in terms of how we had progressed and you're correct. We started here in New York City. And from there, now we have moved to 11 other cities across the country, include in Washington, D.C., where we see the numbers have simply gone through the roof. In Washington, D.C., they have the highest incidence and prevalence of HIV-AIDS than any other area being a district here in this country. And that is phenomenal. So even with the work and the improvements as far as medications, and we thank God, there have been some very important progress made in that area. But I want everyone to know and remember. HIV-AIDS is preventable. But it is not curable. These are not curable. AIDS is not curable. So when people think, okay, if they come down, if they contract the disease, all they

have to do is take the medication, that is for the rest of one's life. And there are some other side effects that we know go along with that. So I want people to understand it. So what we are doing, Roscoe now, is very exciting. Building on the strength of this organization that the foundation lead by Deborah Frazier has, you, Dr. Butts, and so many others. And of course, the honorable David Deacons was treated. She was a chair. She was a chair. I'm proud of the great deal of leadership. We're starting. Absolutely. So because of the work that you guys did and the strong foundation that was laid, we're now able to continue to expand our work in the area of policy, advocacy, training, capacity building of organizations throughout the country, in order to engage not only clergy members, but elected officials, business leaders, consumers, providers of services,

work with state and local departments of health. Because this has to continue to be a collective effort to educate, to create more awareness, to promote testing, and to bring to the attention of those who need to know that that stigma is still a problem. Well, let's go back. You know, as I said, when we started, we did education and getting communities involved, et cetera. Yet at the same time, the epidemic has increased in African American communities. No longer seen as a gay disease, the intervention of drug use, the periscuous sex activity to spread it where people didn't know they were HIV, and so on. How do you put that package together, so that organizations and people can truly understand where we are right now with AIDS? That's a continuing struggle, that will challenge that we are having, but the National Blood Leadership Commission Ace, we are doing a couple of things.

One, I think you participated in the Conclave in 2007, where over 160 leaders, mostly clergy members from mega churches, activist churches, and so forth, met here in New York City for two days at the Time Warner Center, and out of that came a document that was signed by all of the clergy members, as a matter of fact, that event was co-chaired by our own Dr. Calvin Butts and Dr. TD Jakes. So we had powerful leaders leading. That document now has been Congresswoman Charles Rangle, a ways and means chair in our congressmen, has now introduced legislation in congress using the outcomes of document from that conclave that has now become a major piece of legislation, H.R. 1964, the National Black Clergy HIV AIDS Elimination Act, and we have over 25 members of congress who have signed on in support of that legislation, and so on the policy front, we are moving to try

to get this legislation passed, because it addresses the myriad of issues and concerns and lessons learned from African Americans who have been in the forefront over the last almost three decades. We are talking about your National Medical Association, your National Conference of Black Mayors, your National Association of Social Workers and others. So this is the first most comprehensive piece of legislation that focuses on expanded testing, comprehensive sex education in the schools, looking at what must be done in the prisons, testing people as they are leaving and leaking them up to care once they return into the community. So that's an important piece of legislation. Additionally, the National Black Leadership Commission are looking at what is happening with women.

We have seen an increase among HIV AIDS, among black women, primarily through heterosexual transmission. That's exactly the point that the nurses spread by contact, where many times they didn't know that they're partners where HIV positive. Right. We have seen since I think the report coming from the Center for Disease Control in 2006 cited that 66 percent of all of the new cases of HIV among women are black women, African American women. That's almost almost 17 percent higher than among white women and higher than Latino women. Matter of fact, an interesting comment was made last year and this year. Last year, during the presidential debate, then presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said that if the numbers were the same among white women as they are among black women, there would be a national outrage. Just two months ago at a conference in Atlanta, Secretary of Health and Human Services

Sebelis essentially said the same thing. So this week is a matter of fact, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS calling together women from across the country, African American women, to do one thing and that is to address collectively what must we do, what must we do it, and how must we, what is the strategy for more effectively addressing HIV, AIDS among black women to create this outrage, to create the response that is needed for us to address this problem? I must say you ought to work with African American men too, because you know, we're working with African American men, but we want the leadership to come from women. So then we can spread our strategy and let the brothers and everyone else know what it is that we need.

We want everyone's hands on this one, white women, white men, the gay community, men who have sex with everybody, but we need to start it and that's what we will be doing over the next few days. What do you think the key to prevention is? I think it starts in several levels, number one, awareness and education is extremely important. And when we see the increased numbers among younger people, we certainly need to do more comprehensive health education with a focus on HIV, AIDS in our public schools. We're talking now with the Department of Health, mental health, and they have a survey that is underway to get a better understanding of exactly what is happening in the schools. New York state mandates that comprehensive sex education, focus on HIV, AIDS must be taught be a part of the curriculum in all of our public schools. You know it's not happening. I know it's not happening, so I think it's for us the younger people. We need to emphasize getting that information, having it as a part of the curriculum.

We need to certainly encourage testing, we find that over 25% of more people who are HIV positive do not even know it. So they are unwittingly spreading the disease through sexual contact. So we need to encourage people to be tested. We need to do several things. People need to know the facts. They need to know that in this country, although African Americans only represent some about 12%, the new cases of AIDS, almost 50% or among African Americans. The new cases of HIV, over 40% are African American. Black women, 66% of all of the new cases of HIV, since 2006, according to the Center for Disease Control or among Black women. So we need to know the facts. We need to know the impact, the best disease in the Black community. We need to understand, again, that it is preventable, but it is not curable.

Then we need to get tested. And then the third thing I want to mention, we need to get involved. We need to get involved throughout organizational level. So many of the women, for example, who have been invited to this national strategy that I spoke about, or had some organizations, your sororities, your civic groups, the links, and other organizations, coalition, 100 Black women, and so forth. So we need to get involved and use our organizations to create more awareness. And we need to also be concerned with personal behavior, to make sure that the relationships are ones that are monogamous, are certainly ones where you discuss these matters and if they're questions, to use protections, condoms, specifically, and to figure out how can we get a better handle on this now-owned communities?

Do what extent has the Black media played a role in this? My impression is that they've played somewhere of a role, but not enough of a role, and not only does the Black media, media in general. It's very difficult to talk about HIV AIDS in the media, but it is very important. They can talk about sexual performance, but they don't talk about HIV AIDS. What does the AIDS community do into help push the media to confront this more specifically? And I don't want to use it in talking about sexual performance, but I advertise to all over the TV with the various medications and enhancements. You absolutely correct the media, it's not done enough to get the message out, it is very hard to get the local as well as national media to focus on this issue in a way that we get the attention. Think about it. Remember right here in New York City when there was the whole drive around trying to encourage people to stop smoking?

Every other minute or so, you would see a commercial on TV about the effects or smoking, and I read a report recently that clearly shows here in New York City smoking is down. That's a good thing. So we need to capture the attention and focus on this in terms of the impact that this disease is continuing to have in the same way. Some things are happening on the national level. For example, the Center for Disease Control, working with Kaiser, they do some media sort of things, but it's clearly not enough and needs to be more of a concentrated effort and we hope that we can begin to address that more broadly. Of course, the point that you raised about if the amount of AIDS in the white community was what was in the black community would be a national issue, it would be an outrage. Because when it was primarily seen as a white gate disease, there was great organization

in that particular community that helped to minimize or cut down the amount of AIDS. We haven't done the same thing in the black community. Is this because of the stigma or is it because of our inability to totally organize? No, that's our job in black and to organize. What have been some of the deterrents to organizing more broadly around this issue? I think stigma certainly plays and continues to play a major part in this rascal. People believe in that, they don't want to talk about it, that if happens to someone else, it's not in their family and because of problems still in the black community, homophobia. It gets linked to HIV-AIDS and that's why we have to create more awareness and get information about the disease is among heterosexual populations. The disease within communities of color or being transmitted predominantly through heterosexual

sex. When we look at other social factors as poverty, the amount of incarceration, people returning to the black communities, when we look at the whole cultural pictures relates to that, we can begin to hopefully help people understand how all of this is tied together and how poverty, lack of resources, lack of access to healthcare, hopefully that's going to change with some healthcare reform now going to taking place. Speaking of that, there has been some federal funding for age prevention program and for medications on, I don't think it's adequate, but the whole extent is there any effort in the Obama administration to expand the amount of money that's being spent on AIDS and AIDS education.

Actually, President Obama did increase by some 50-some million dollars, I don't remember the exact amount in terms of the proposed budget that he sent to Congress this year in the area of prevention and to his credit. He's the first president who's really taken a stand to bring about a national aid strategy and the HR 1964 legislation that I mentioned earlier, the National Black Clergy HIV AIDS Elimination Act, very much supports a national aid strategy because in this bill, HR 1964, it calls for a better coordination and collaboration among the various federal agencies through which dollars are allocated for HIV prevention treatment and care. That simply has not been done in a way that we see the impact or able to maximize the resources that exist.

So President Obama has called for a national aid strategy and in fact here in New York City on December 4th, they're having town hall meetings across the country. Here on December 4th, there will be the town hall meeting in New York City and I'm going to get you more information on that because I love for you to certainly make sure that your view and audience know it's going to be 630 to 830, Columbia campus up on 168th Street and we want people to come out and talk about why it is important to have a national aid strategy so we can better direct the resources, we can hold the departments more accountable, we can advocate for more research to be done and we can certainly advocate for other things that are needed like the comprehensive health education and routine tests in among others. But one of the things that you pointed out with the Black clergy has been in the forefront of many of the programs of education and awareness building and so on.

To what extent is the Black business community been involved in this? Black business community have stepped up from time to time when asked but not to the extent that I think that they can play a role in terms of resources, advocacy, support for some of the work that even the Black clergy are doing. So as we work across the country, especially in areas of Atlanta, Washington, D.C. and Temple, we are now having legislative breathless with legislators to help them understand what is happening in their own district, they have to tell you a little story, you know, as someone who has been elected office and government in this city for so many years. I'm amazed at the gap between the information, policy makers and people who set budgets and the service providers. So one of the things that we are doing at the National Black Leadership Commission on

AIDS Intentionally is closing that gap. We meet with our legislators here say in the state of New York as well as other cities and states where we are located to help them understand and see what is happening in their own district, zip codes by zip codes. And for the most part, they are very, very surprised, they simply did not know, very supportive with looking at budgets and supporting policy. And for that, I am very grateful. I would also like to say here in the city of New York, the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS is funded through major help of the city council for communities of color initiative that allows us to work with over 67 faith-based institutions here in the city of New York and over 27 community-based organizations. And through that network, we are able to increase testing, education, awareness, outreach into the communities, and we are seeing impact in the areas where this is going, so the

city council has really been on it now for five years. Now, if anyone in our audience wants to contact the National Black Leadership Commission, how do they do it? The phone number. On the website, www.nblca.org, and contact information is there, but also the phone number is 2-1-2-6-1-4-0-0-2-3, and we are located at 1-2-O-Walt Street, 23th floor. I think it is important that the audience understands this because one of the issues with AIDS is just the lack of awareness. And one of the purposes of black, as you say, is to bring that awareness and to organize a community, not to provide treatment because there are many places where they can get treatment. The question is to get the awareness and get the community to be involved in it. And our efforts, of course, to raise through this awareness is to generate more resources for those service providers, through the 22-year history or so of the organization.

This organization has had to generate somewhere near $3 billion through the... The catalytic efforts, but the federal, state, and local levels. So it is very important to do this outreach, but as far as what the viewers can do, get informed, get educated, which is part of what we've been talking about here today. But test it and get involved. And through that mechanism, though, those mechanisms, I think we can have a much more of an impact on this rascal than what we were seeing. So... Now, as a form of President Manhattan, a form of city council person, how does their role in black are fit in with your career? Very nicely, because, again, on the legislative side, I understand that, how we need to get things done, I understand the importance of policy and advocacy, and I understand certainly the importance of closing this gap I spoke about between people who set policy, set

budgets, and the service providers. And so bringing that together through my knowledge of working in government and recognizing the importance of getting legislation in policy set because that defines budgets. So it's fitting very well, don't forget my social work background too. Well, you guys, today on African-American legends, we've been talking with C. Virginia and your fields as a CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS. Thank you very much for being with us today, B.D.