Race & Health

OAKLAND, California – El paciente tendría poco más de 60 años y era un hombre afroamericano con enfisema. El oxímetro colocado en la yema de su dedo registraba un nivel de saturación de oxígeno en sangre muy superior al 88%, el índice que indica un riesgo urgente de falla orgánica y muerte. Sin embargo  su […]

Vice President Kamala Harris is seeing a surge of support from Black women voters, galvanized in part by her work on health care issues such as maternal mortality, reproductive rights, and gun control. The enthusiasm may be key for Democratic turnout at the polls in critical battleground states. Black women have always been among the […]

SIKESTON, Mo. — At age 79, Nannetta Forrest, whose father, Cleo Wright, was lynched in Sikeston, Missouri, before she was born, wonders how the decades-long silence that surrounded his death in 1942 influenced her life. In 2020, Sikeston police killed another young Black man, 23-year-old Denzel Taylor. Taylor’s shooting death immediately made local headlines, but […]

KFF Health News Midwest correspondent Cara Anthony discussed healing from racial trauma on “America’s Heroes Group” on Sept. 20. Click here to watch Anthony on “America’s Heroes Group” Explore Anthony’s series on the topic, “Silence in Sikeston” KFF Health News contributor Andy Miller discussed Medicaid expansion in Georgia on WUGA’s “The Georgia Health Report” on Sept. […]

ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer. “Sorry it has taken this long for paperwork to come back,” the officer wrote. “But I finally have the final report, and wanted to see […]

SIKESTON, Mo. — For residents of Sikeston, as for Black Americans around the country, speaking openly about experiences with racial violence can be taboo and, in some cases, forbidden. As a child, Larry McClellon’s mother told him not to ask too many questions about the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright in their hometown of Sikeston. […]

In 1942, a young Black man named Cleo Wright was removed from a Sikeston, Missouri, jail and lynched by a white mob. Nearly 80 years later, another young Black man, Denzel Taylor, was shot at least 18 times by police in the same small community.  In the hourlong “Silence in Sikeston” documentary film broadcast on […]

KFF Health News contributor Phillip Reese discussed the rapid rise of breast cancer rates among Asian American and Pacific Islander women on KCBS Radio on Sept. 7. Click to hear Reese on KCBS. Read Reese’s “Breast Cancer Rises Among Asian American and Pacific Islander Women.” KFF Health News contributor Andy Miller discussed medical response to mass […]

SIKESTON, Mo. — I wasn’t sure if visiting a cotton field was a good idea. Almost everyone in my family was antsy when we pulled up to the sea of white. The cotton was beautiful but soggy. An autumn rain had drenched the dirt before we arrived, our shoes sinking into the ground with each […]

SIKESTON, Mo. — In 1942, Mable Cook was a teenager. She was standing on her front porch when she witnessed the lynching of Cleo Wright. In the aftermath, Cook received advice from her father that was intended to keep her safe. “He didn’t want us talking about it,” Cook said. “He told us to forget […]