Out in the Rural: A Mississippi Health Center and Its War on Poverty

If you are wondering how the Black Lives Matter protest movement could transition into lasting change, this wonderful book by Tom Ward will show you a potential blueprint. You will learn about the visionaries from over 50 years ago who founded and operated the first community health center in the U.S. It was a collaborative effort between the medical community, academia, the federal government and the local black community. By treating all aspects of healthcare (not just medicine) as a human right, the Tufts-Delta Health Center empowered marginalized communities throughout rural Mississippi with life changing results. So perhaps this is more than a fascinating history book. Perhaps it points to a way forward in helping to overcome the systematic racism and marginalization that still exists today. I certainly hope so.

This is truly an eye-opening account of how a single health care experiment changed the way our nation began to care for the medical and social needs of our rural destitute. In the 1960s, in rural Mississippi of all places, where racial divide was intense, care for the sick and infirm was almost non-existent. This is the story of how the nation’s first community health care centers came into being. Against the enormous odds of imbedded racial neglect, political agendas, fear of change and almost no funds, a tiny group of professionals gave birth to the idea that community health care is the first step to social change. It’s a fascinating and heroic story.

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