The History of Slavery and Discrimination: Medicine and the Black Body

Bethel AME Church and Gibbel Kraybill & Hess are Pleased to Announce the 2022 Seminar Series on The History of Slavery and Discrimination

This seminar series presented by Gibbel Kraybill & Hess attorneys J. Dwight Yoder and Sheila O’Rourke in collaboration with Reverend Edward M. Bailey and Dr. Danielle Brown of Bethel AME Church has been exploring the legal and historical context of slavery and racial discrimination in the United States.

Often referred to as America’s “original sin,” the kidnapping of Africans, who were then taken to the United States where they were enslaved and treated as property, represents one of the most tragic and inhumane parts of our country’s history. Our founding document – the United States Constitution – preserved and protected slavery as an institution. Even after slavery was abolished by the adoption of the 13th Amendment during the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War, discrimination, organized violence and systemic oppression against African-Americans continued. This discrimination was legalized by the states, encouraged by the federal government and sanctioned by the courts. The systemic and institutional nature of slavery and racial discrimination has caused great disparity in our country between Blacks and Whites that continues to manifest itself in many different ways.

Over the past three years, there have been many large group seminars reviewing key historical events and facts from our country’s history of slavery and discrimination followed by small group discussions. The small group discussions require participants to review assigned materials in advance to be able to engage in meaningful discussion on a specific topic. With the onset of Covid-19, the large group presentations and small group seminars have been conducted virtually, which can be viewed on GKH’s YouTube page.

We are pleased to announce the next seminar in this ongoing series that will examine and address several myths surrounding African American health. This seminar will also explore possible changes to education of health care professionals to address systemic disparities. We will discuss successful approaches to meeting the health care needs of African Americans and other people of color.

We are honored to be joined by Dr. Cherise Hamblin, M.D., who will be moderating a panel discussion with local BIPOC physicians. Dr. Hamblin is a full time, board certified OBGYN at Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, and the founder and president of Patients R Waiting, a non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating health disparities by increasing diversity in medicine. Patients R Waiting focuses on increasing the pipeline of minority clinicians, making the pipeline less leaky and supporting minority clinicians in practice. Dr. Hamblin is passionate about working with the next generation of physicians and has channeled this passion into her work with advisors, students, and community organizers on various mentoring and exposure programs. We look forward to learning from her experiences and expertise.

Please join us for this virtual seminar. You can either join as a participant by registering in advance, or you can watch the live-stream feed from GKH’s Facebook Page. A link to the live stream will be posted on our Facebook page prior to the start of the virtual seminar on Wednesday, March 30th. All are welcome to join!

To be able to participate and ask questions in this seminar, you must pre-register through Zoom. Please be advised that the seminar, including the question and answer session, will be recorded and posted on the internet for viewing by the general public. By preregistering, you consent to your participation in the seminar being included as part of the recording that will be posted to the internet following the seminar.