Speaker addresses AIDS, King

In a recent speech, Robert Fullilove captivated his audience by taking Martin Luther King's message out of the 1960s and dropping it in the midst of the current AIDS epidemic. Fullilove, a colleague of King's, spoke in Houston Hall Tuesday night to a crowd of over 35. Fullilove's visit -- sponsored by the Student Health Service -- was part of the University's month-long celebration of King's life and his message. Currently the associate dean for community and minority affairs at Columbia University's School of Public Health, Fullilove emphasized the importance of community action and demanded a "rebirth of activism." He cited AIDS as a symptom -- not a problem -- of the reality of modern urban communities. "AIDS indicates a community in decline," he said. Fullilove reiterated the connection between "the war on drugs" and the increasing association of AIDS as a disease of people of color. Possession and use of crack cocaine -- an inexpensive drug that is widely used in underprivileged communities -- is one the most heavily punished drug offenses, according to Fullilove. Since so many crack users are in jail and HIV is easily spread throughout prison populations, Fullilove explained, the disease particularly plagues the underprivileged. Twenty-five percent of the prison population is infected with HIV, he added. Prisons are only temporary holding cells for the offenders who will eventually recycle the AIDS virus into their communities, Fullilove said. He praised King's message as holding unseen wisdom for the battle against AIDS. "King emphasized togetherness and the notion of alternative world views," he noted. After summarizing his own experience with King during the civil rights movement, Fullilove suggested a change of focus for public health education based on King's emphasis upon community cooperation. While he praised public health education's focus on instructing individuals to consider the ramifications of potentially risky behavior, Fullilove also emphasized the necessity of community action to achieve a more efficient public health program. "You work with individuals in the hope that what will happen is something collective," he added. It is the act of cooperative work which offers a sense of community, Fullilove noted. "This was King's goal." Kurt Conklin, a representative from the Office of Health Education who attended the event, pinpointed the significance of Fullilove's talk. "Penn does not have a school for public health, but we have a lot of students interested in it, so any chance to hear from someone who is squarely in public health excites me," Conklin said.