Arizona: Followers Cite King Legacy in Struggle Against AIDS

AIDS advocates in Tucson commemorated the birthday of slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Monday by coordinating citywide events around the theme "Silence = Death: We Must Eliminate HIV."

"We need this knowledge," said Gwen Stephens, a 49-year-old African-American woman who was diagnosed with HIV in 2000 after acquiring the virus through rape. "Somebody has to start this somewhere." "My hope is that our community will have more compassion and caring for people with HIV and AIDS," said Stephens.

"One of the things that was so profound about Dr. King was his ability to empower our own people," said Gezzele Martin, a registered nurse and vice president of the Coalition for African American Health and Wellness. "He encouraged that we do things for ourselves and take leadership for our community -- not wait for others to hand it to us. This is one of those issues where we can no longer say it's someone else's disease and someone else needs to fix it."

In 2000, 10 percent of new Pima County HIV cases were African Americans, though they comprise less than 4 percent of the county's population. In 2004, black female state residents were 17 times more likely to have HIV than white female residents.

On Thursday, local members came together to formulate a strategy to reverse HIV's increase in the community. King Holiday events coordinator for Tucson, Clarence Boykins, joined others in pledging to increase HIV/AIDS awareness this year. "We've done a very poor job in doing that in the black community," said Fred Miller, a physician for Pima County. HIV "is like a wildfire, and there is no water that's containing it at this point."

Back to other news for January 16, 2007