Civil Rights and Medicine 101 is HERE!

Welcome to class... now let's teach you forgotten history

Black physicians protesting outside of AMA convention

Imagine a world where your zip code, skin color, or income didn’t determine your health outcomes. Now, ask yourself: How did we get here—and how do we fix it?

That’s exactly what Civil Rights and Medicine 101 is about. This course unpacks how the Medical Civil Rights Movement shaped health care—and why those battles are STILL being fought today.

What You’ll Learn

Over 11 power-packed lessons, we’ll cover:
✅ How a landmark court case desegregated hospitals
✅ The Civil Rights Act’s impact on healthcare equity
✅ How Medicare & Medicaid revolutionized access to care
✅ The activism behind free clinics & patient rights
✅ The hard truth about how integration harmed Black hospitals

And because this isn’t just history—it’s strategy—you’ll leave with the tools to connect past movements to today’s continued fight for health justice.

Course Breakdown

💡 Lesson 1: Intro to Civil Rights in Medicine – Simkins v. Cone
➡️ Why does civil rights still matter in healthcare? (Spoiler: It always did.)

💡 Lesson 2: Title VI of the Civil Rights Act
➡️ The law that made health care discrimination illegal—but is it enforced?

💡 Lesson 3: Medicare, Medicaid & Equity
➡️ How two government programs transformed access to care (and who got left out).

💡 Lesson 4: Hospital De-segregation
➡️ Activists fought to break hospital color lines—but at what cost?

💡 Lesson 5: National Medical Association & Student National Medical Association
➡️ The Black medical organizations that held the door open for future doctors.

💡 Lesson 6: Medical Committee for Human Rights (MCHR)
➡️ When doctors and activists teamed up to make healthcare a human right.

💡 Lesson 7: Black Panthers & Free Clinics
➡️ The radical approach to community healthcare—before "health equity" was a buzzword.

💡 Lesson 8: Lincoln Hospital & Patient Rights
➡️ What happens when patients fight back for their rights?

💡 Lesson 9: The Harm to Black Hospitals
➡️ The unintended consequences of desegregation—did it help or hurt Black healthcare?

💡 Lesson 10: Review & Reflection
➡️ Connecting history to NOW—because the fight isn’t over.

💡 Lesson 11: Final Project
➡️ Your turn to teach the people—summarize a key lesson to educate others!

Why This Course? Why Now?

Because racial health disparities aren’t a glitch—they’re by design.
Because you can’t fix what you don’t understand.
Because health justice is civil rights.

This course is designed to educate, challenge, and inspire action. And we’re not just talking—we’re DOING. '

Every lesson includes interactive assignments like reflections, research, and TikToks to spread the knowledge.

📢 Ready to Learn?

Drop a 🔥 in the comments if you're joining the Dose Squad movement.

First lesson drops TODAY—let’s get into it! 💊