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Health disparities emerge on modern civil rights front<br><br>Joyce Edwards holds a glass of juice made out of carrots, spinach and an apple in her Cincinnati home on Aug. 19, 2013. Edwards, 68,iphone 5s case prada, once weighed 25 pounds more and had to take medicine to control high blood pressure. She researched and, even into her 50s, changed her diet to reduce meat and traditional soul food, increase vegetables, and limit salt and sweets. She started to walk at least three times a week. Edwards no longer needs medication and is in the best health of her life. / Gannett/Leigh Taylor, Cincinnati Enquirer<br><br>CINCINNATI  When Jocelyn Storr turned 40, she looked at her scale and her father's deteriorating health from a stroke and heart attack and decided to make a change.<br><br>As an African American, she had resigned herself to a life of hypertension and weight struggles. Then she realized that she controlled her own health. So she started walking regularly, closely monitoring her portion sizes and sugar intake as well as that of her children and grandchildren. She has lost 30 pounds and gained energy to put into her event planning business.<br><br>"I didn't want to end up like my dad, and I know how hard it is to change, so I wanted to give my kids and grandkids a head start," said Storr, 43, of Colerain Township.<br><br>These actions embody the type of change that health advocates want more people of color to experience. The effort to reduce critical health disparities between African Americans and white Americans is expanding nationally, and ?? on this, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ?? is increasingly seen as some of the unfinished business of the fight for racial equality.<br><br>The 1963 event stands as the pivotal moment of the civil rights movement, the day 50 years ago Wednesday that Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on racial harmony. Other speakers that day called for jobs and a living wage for low income people, particularly African Americans.<br><br>As the anniversary renews attention on economic inequality, health disparity moves to the fore as well. African Americans on average don't live as long as whites. They have less access to private health care and healthy foods and are significantly more likely to suffer from an array of diseases and conditions, ranging from cancer and diabetes to high blood pressure and obesity.<br><br>"Health disparities certainly are a civil rights issue, and while each person has the responsibility to care for themselves by eating right and exercising, it is clear that African Americans do not have equal access to health care," said Bobby Hilton, senior pastor of Word of Deliverance, Forest Park, and president of the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights group founded in 1991 by Al Sharpton and sponsor of the day long march on Saturday in Washington.<br><br>The local National Action Network, along with the Baptist Ministers Conference and the Black Nurses Association of Greater Cincinnati, are among organizations supporting the local movement to narrow health disparities, led by the nonprofit Center for Closing the Health Gap.<br><br>"Everything else has been addressed ?? education, housing, jobs, voting rights ?? even though they're not all figured out," said Dwight Tillery, Health Gap founder and president and former Cincinnati mayor and councilman.<br><br>Health and economics are closely linked and, to some civil rights activists, inseparable.<br><br>"Social justice is what drives us," said Noble Maseru, Cincinnati health commissioner. "If you start with food, shelter and clothing, you have greater distribution of health."<br><br>Several government and health industry reports quantify the disparities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its "Health Disparities and Inequalities Report" that, in part, used data to show how people living in "lower socioeconomic circumstances are at increased risk" for serious disease and premature death, have reduced access to health care and receive an inadequate quality of care.<br><br>Advocates say the Affordable Care Act, by making health insurance available to millions of currently uninsured Americans, provides part of the solution.<br><br>Nationally, the New Jersey based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of the strongest voices working to close health disparities. Another involved group is the American Public Health Association, whose president. Adewale Troutman, spoke at a high school health summit in Cincinnati recently.<br><br>"A basic part of the problem is there is still a 'them' and an 'us,'" said Troutman, a physician. "I say when an African American baby dies in the first year of life, it affects us all. We are connected."<br><br>Greater Cincinnati's Center for Closing the Health Gap is one of the leading organizations nationally in creating awareness, Troutman said.<br><br>Individual lives change to change communities<br><br>The center's latest program is the Mount Auburn Block by Block model, a resident led education program that has gone door to door in the hilltop neighborhood of 6,700 residents with information on diet and exercise. Besides the new walking groups, cooking classes and other education sessions are planned.<br><br>Howard Martin, 40, an unemployed diabetic who lives with his elderly parents, earned a stipend by walking the neighborhood to deliver pamphlets. The money was enough to buy medicine to treat his diabetes.<br><br>"I got involved to save myself," Martin said. "I don't get the splitting headaches any more. I'm jogging now. I feel better."<br><br>On Aug. 10, the Health Gap and local National Action Network chapter sponsored a screening of the documentary "Soul Food Junkies." The film examines soul food, such as fried chicken and barbecued pork, as part of black cultural identity and measures its often negative effects on African American health.<br><br>Joyce Edwards, 68, spoke during a post screening discussion, saying how she changed to a vegetarian diet 10 years ago when she started having to take medicine to treat high blood pressure.<br><br>"I was always a little chunky thing," said Edwards, who now makes and drinks carrot juice, "but I lost 20, 25 pounds by changing my diet and starting to walk at least three times a week."<br><br>She now looks more optimistically at a longer and better quality life and no longer has to take blood pressure medicine.<br><br>Hospitals, churches key players in movement<br><br>Hospitals and predominantly black churches play vital roles in increasing awareness and decreasing disparities.

Health disparities emerge on modern civil rights front<br><br>Joyce Edwards holds a glass of juice made out of carrots, spinach and an apple in her Cincinnati home on Aug. 19, 2013. Edwards, 68,iphone 5s case prada, once weighed 25 pounds more and had to take medicine to control high blood pressure. She researched and, even into her 50s, changed her diet to reduce meat and traditional soul food, increase vegetables, and limit salt and sweets. She started to walk at least three times a week. Edwards no longer needs medication and is in the best health of her life. / Gannett/Leigh Taylor, Cincinnati Enquirer<br><br>CINCINNATI  When Jocelyn Storr turned 40, she looked at her scale and her father's deteriorating health from a stroke and heart attack and decided to make a change.<br><br>As an African American, she had resigned herself to a life of hypertension and weight struggles. Then she realized that she controlled her own health. So she started walking regularly, closely monitoring her portion sizes and sugar intake as well as that of her children and grandchildren. She has lost 30 pounds and gained energy to put into her event planning business.<br><br>"I didn't want to end up like my dad, and I know how hard it is to change, so I wanted to give my kids and grandkids a head start," said Storr, 43, of Colerain Township.<br><br>These actions embody the type of change that health advocates want more people of color to experience. The effort to reduce critical health disparities between African Americans and white Americans is expanding nationally, and ?? on this, the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ?? is increasingly seen as some of the unfinished business of the fight for racial equality.<br><br>The 1963 event stands as the pivotal moment of the civil rights movement, the day 50 years ago Wednesday that Martin Luther King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech on racial harmony. Other speakers that day called for jobs and a living wage for low income people, particularly African Americans.<br><br>As the anniversary renews attention on economic inequality, health disparity moves to the fore as well. African Americans on average don't live as long as whites. They have less access to private health care and healthy foods and are significantly more likely to suffer from an array of diseases and conditions, ranging from cancer and diabetes to high blood pressure and obesity.<br><br>"Health disparities certainly are a civil rights issue, and while each person has the responsibility to care for themselves by eating right and exercising, it is clear that African Americans do not have equal access to health care," said Bobby Hilton, senior pastor of Word of Deliverance, Forest Park, and president of the Greater Cincinnati Chapter of the National Action Network, a civil rights group founded in 1991 by Al Sharpton and sponsor of the day long march on Saturday in Washington.<br><br>The local National Action Network, along with the Baptist Ministers Conference and the Black Nurses Association of Greater Cincinnati, are among organizations supporting the local movement to narrow health disparities, led by the nonprofit Center for Closing the Health Gap.<br><br>"Everything else has been addressed ?? education, housing, jobs, voting rights ?? even though they're not all figured out," said Dwight Tillery, Health Gap founder and president and former Cincinnati mayor and councilman.<br><br>Health and economics are closely linked and, to some civil rights activists, inseparable.<br><br>"Social justice is what drives us," said Noble Maseru, Cincinnati health commissioner. "If you start with food, shelter and clothing, you have greater distribution of health."<br><br>Several government and health industry reports quantify the disparities. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its "Health Disparities and Inequalities Report" that, in part, used data to show how people living in "lower socioeconomic circumstances are at increased risk" for serious disease and premature death, have reduced access to health care and receive an inadequate quality of care.<br><br>Advocates say the Affordable Care Act, by making health insurance available to millions of currently uninsured Americans, provides part of the solution.<br><br>Nationally, the New Jersey based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is one of the strongest voices working to close health disparities. Another involved group is the American Public Health Association, whose president. Adewale Troutman, spoke at a high school health summit in Cincinnati recently.<br><br>"A basic part of the problem is there is still a 'them' and an 'us,'" said Troutman, a physician. "I say when an African American baby dies in the first year of life, it affects us all. We are connected."<br><br>Greater Cincinnati's Center for Closing the Health Gap is one of the leading organizations nationally in creating awareness, Troutman said.<br><br>Individual lives change to change communities<br><br>The center's latest program is the Mount Auburn Block by Block model, a resident led education program that has gone door to door in the hilltop neighborhood of 6,700 residents with information on diet and exercise. Besides the new walking groups, cooking classes and other education sessions are planned.<br><br>Howard Martin, 40, an unemployed diabetic who lives with his elderly parents, earned a stipend by walking the neighborhood to deliver pamphlets. The money was enough to buy medicine to treat his diabetes.<br><br>"I got involved to save myself," Martin said. "I don't get the splitting headaches any more. I'm jogging now. I feel better."<br><br>On Aug. 10, the Health Gap and local National Action Network chapter sponsored a screening of the documentary "Soul Food Junkies." The film examines soul food, such as fried chicken and barbecued pork, as part of black cultural identity and measures its often negative effects on African American health.<br><br>Joyce Edwards, 68, spoke during a post screening discussion, saying how she changed to a vegetarian diet 10 years ago when she started having to take medicine to treat high blood pressure.<br><br>"I was always a little chunky thing," said Edwards, who now makes and drinks carrot juice, "but I lost 20, 25 pounds by changing my diet and starting to walk at least three times a week."<br><br>She now looks more optimistically at a longer and better quality life and no longer has to take blood pressure medicine.<br><br>Hospitals, churches key players in movement<br><br>Hospitals and predominantly black churches play vital roles in increasing awareness and decreasing disparities.