For All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform

Communities & Health Care

Delta Health Center, Mound Bayou, MS, 1968

Nurses meeting at the Delta Health Center, a community-controlled clinic in Mound Bayou, MS, 1968
Courtesy Daniel Bernstein/Jack Geiger

Minority and low-income Americans have organized to bring quality health care to their communities for over a century. Responding to neglect from government and private providers, community members have created their own public health campaigns, hospitals, clinics, and health centers. The Delta Health Center, organized by physicians and nurses from the Medical Committee for Human Rights, was one of the first community-controlled health clinics in the United States.

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