Blog | NAACP

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Tony R. Wafford, Director of Health and Wellness National Action Network

Black Men Who Don’t Have Sex with Men: “The Forgotten Population in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS”

As we enter into our thirtieth year of the HIV/AIDS pandemic here in America, I’m still hearing many researchers, men who have sex with men (MSM), HIV activists, the infected and the affected asking the same question; “Where are the heterosexual (non-MSM) Black men, and why aren’t they doing more to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the Black community?”

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Sable K. Nelson, Health Chair, Washington, DC NAACP Branch

Silence Isn’t Golden: A Call for Community Discussion about HIV/AIDS in Women

Let’s talk about sex. No, not the Salt ‘N’ Pepa hit from the 1990s. As a Black Community, especially black women, we need to have an honest discussion about what really happens behind our closed doors. Two weeks ago, I turned twenty-five. While I am thankful to have lived for quarter of a century, it is sobering to know that 83.8 percent of women in my age group (25-34) attributed contracting HIV through heterosexual contact in 2008. It is even more disconcerting to note that Black/African American women had the highest percentage (87 percent) of HIV transmission through heterosexual contact .These statistics are staggering. It is time to ring the alarm. Our silence here is not golden.

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, President and CEO of the Black Women’s Health Imperative

Raising Black Girls in the Age of HIV/AIDS:

In honor of the 30th commemoration of HIV/AIDS, the NAACP has launched a blogging campaigning entitled HIV/AIDS at 30. It will feature blogs and video posts from the NAACP staff, leadership, members, and partners on various topics that affect the black community. Each month we will have a new topic. March is Women and Girls month and two of our Act Against Aids Initiative (AAALI) partners, Black Women’s Health Imperative‘s President and CEO, Eleanor Hilton Hoytt and the National Council of Negro Women’s, Executive Director Dr. Avis Jones- DeWeever have written articles to shed light on a disease that is claiming the lives of so many black women.

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Dr. Avis Jones-DeWeever, Executive Director of The National Council of Negro Women, Inc

Claiming Our Power in the Fight Against AIDS

I sat before the room dumbfounded. Surrounding me were brilliant, beautiful, driven, and successful young women. Each high achievers in their own right. Each on the verge of certain success. Yet, these young women who had originally come to my office to discuss transversing that critical, but sometimes scary path of transitioning from undergraduate education to the rest of their lives, had seemingly only one thing at the top of their minds, “Will I ever find love?”