Eric Paulk, Georgia Equality’s HIV Policy Organizer, recently spoke at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health about the intersections of public health, HIV advocacy, race, and art in an event sponsored by the Rose Library, the Emory Center for HIV Research, and the Association of Black Public Health Students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The event included an exhibit of archived documents from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference/W.O.M.E.N. around the group’s HIV work. Their work goes against common myths about the Black community’s engagement early in the epidemic, and the Black Church’s engagement around HIV. These records document meetings with community leaders and educational workshops that demonstrate the Black community’s early involvement of the epidemic. In fact, the SCLC/W.O.M.E.N. hosted the inaugural Conference on AIDS in the Black Community in 1986.

Georgia Equality’s HIV policy work centers around advocating for people living with HIV and communities that are disproportionately impacted by the epidemic through legislative and policy change, community organizing around HIV-related issues, and by centering the voices of people living with HIV.