Academics, historians, physicians and community leaders convened over breakfast for a program exploring the consequences of historic redlining on Atlanta’s health outcomes. Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement (ARCHI) hosted the event with Morehouse School of Medicine on Friday, Aug. 7 at Friendship Baptist Church.
Friendship Baptist Church itself carries a rich history, having been founded in 1862 by 25 enslaved African Americans just a few blocks away from its contemporary location in Vine City. The predominantly Black neighborhood has been the site of redlining, segregation and displacement for over a century.
“Redlining is the process, which was legal at a time, of systematically denying credit and insurance access to residents of specific neighborhoods, often based on race or ethnicity,” explained Dr. Tabia Henry Akintobi, professor and Chair of Community Health at Morehouse School of Medicine.
Akintobi urged the audience to take action to advance health equity.
“Systems routinely ask people with the fewest resources, with the fewest opportunities — that must work to survive those systems, those consequences of health disparities — to navigate fragmented care, prove eligibility, repeatedly travel farthest for services,” she said. “Community-centered public health responds by relocating responsibility to us, asking institutions and systems to change how they operate.”
Dr. Sun Joo Ahn, professor and Director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems at the University of Georgia, presented interdisciplinary research that uses virtual reality (VR) to address health inequities.
One VR experience shows users what happens inside the body when it receives a vaccine—a journey Ahn compares to The Magic School Bus—while another simulates a conversation with a neighbor who tells stories about her lived experience with redlining.
Researchers worked with the Center for Black Women’s Wellness to develop a redlining story that is consistent with real lived experiences.
In the story, the user has a conversation with their 67-year-old neighbor, Linda, who explains how redlining has affected her life.
“[Linda] describes why she chose to stay in this neighborhood, what it means to her, where generations of her family have lived in that community,” Ahn explained.
VR can never truly simulate what it is like to be Linda, but it can provide the opportunity to share a conversation with her, Ahn said.
“Our findings from decades of research demonstrate that when we put you in the body of an avatar, you don’t really understand what that life is going to be like because you can never be that person. But when we put you in a world where you can walk alongside somebody who is telling their story, their lived experiences, this is where people really start to listen,” Ahn said.
Victoria Lemos has been podcasting about Atlanta’s history for eight years. The host of Archive Atlanta presented a brief but detailed history of redlining in Atlanta, from maps of the earliest water wells and sewer systems to the life expectancy disparities between predominantly white and predominantly Black neighborhoods.
In the panel discussion, Jemea Dorsey, CEO of the Center for Black Women’s Wellness, said systems that were intended to cause harm to Black women continue to do so across Atlanta, not just in neighborhoods with fewer resources.
“Regardless of income, insurance status, or anything… wherever you live in Metro Atlanta, Black women are still more likely to be impacted by maternal mortality and morbidity. It’s a fact. Regardless of whether you graduated from Spelman or had no education, your outcomes are poor,” Dorsey said.
Panel moderator Odetta MacLeish-White, a strategic advisor at The Ke’nekt Cooperative, stressed the importance of all social determinants of health. Housing, she said, is a preventative health measure.
“One of the most powerful things that you can do today, each of us, is to keep learning and educating others as well, about the intersection of racial equity, health equity, injustice in housing and health…These are not separate systems. They are deeply connected, and they shape everyday life for families across Atlanta and the country,” Mac-Leish White said.
Eric Thomas, Senior Pastor at Saint Peter Missionary Baptist Church in southwest Atlanta, explained how faith-based organizations play an important role in connecting members to health and wellness resources.
“The majority of churches in Atlanta now are what we call community-based churches,” Thomas said. “Their congregation is made up of 60 to 70% of people who live in their community. We become not only the pastor of our congregation, but the pastor of our community.”
Howard Mosby, Vice President of Medical Affairs at Grady Health System, said Grady seeks to expand access to transportation, partnering with Uber for patients who do not have access to MARTA. Grady’s Food As Medicine program, a partnership with Atlanta Community Food Bank, launched in 2020 to expand food access and education.
LaShawn Hoffman, a community development strategist and former NPU chair, said “too many communities are looked at as asset deficient” rather than as places where existing assets can be built upon. Political power, he said, is still a major factor keeping resources from reaching previously redlined communities.
ARCHI’s annual State of Metro Atlanta Health will take place at the Loudermilk Conference Center on Nov. 6.
