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HEALTH

Leaders of Memphis hospitals condemn killing of George Floyd after week of protests

Corinne S Kennedy
Memphis Commercial Appeal

The leaders of Regional One Health, Baptist Memorial Healthcare and Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare on Wednesday strongly condemned the killing of George Floyd and "insidious" racism. 

"The tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis was devastating for the sheer viciousness of the attack. But it was also devastating because it was neither an anomaly nor surprising," the three leaders said in a statement. "Memphis and the Mid-South, like other communities around the country, have their own tragic history of racial injustice. It is part of our collective story. How we continue to shape our story going forward is up to us."

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The CEOs of Regional One Health, Methodist Le Bonheur, Baptist Memorial Hospital and St. Francis Hospital, seated left to right, convened at the University of Memphis on Dec. 3, 2019.

Reginald Coopwood, president and CEO Regional One Health; Jason Little, president and CEO Baptist Memorial Health Care; and Michael Ugwueke, president and CEO Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, issued the joint statement Wednesday afternoon.

Floyd was killed by a now-former Minneapolis police officer on Memorial Day after the officer kneeled on Floyd's neck for several minutes and continued to kneel on him after he became unresponsive. Derek Chauvin has since been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Three officers who were on the scene and did not intervene will also be charged.

Floyd's death has sparked a wave of protests — some peaceful and some violent — across the country, including in Memphis, in the past 10 days.

Coopwood, Little and Ugwueke said racism was "as insidious as it is intractable" and that it could not be solved with a vaccine. 

"Racism is incubated in ignorance. It then infects society through distrust of each other, prejudice within the justice system, and impoverishment through the economic system," the statement read.

The local health care leaders said it was important for members of the Mid-South business community to speak out about injustice and racial disparities because of the influence they wield. They called on large employers to promote diversity within their workplaces and set an example in hiring, pay, promotions and internal culture.

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Health care institutions in particular have a significant role to play in addressing longstanding racial disparities and injustices in their communities, Coopwood, Little and Ugwueke said. 

"The indisputable fact is that communities of color are disproportionately suffering from a host of public health challenges. It is unacceptable that African Americans have shorter life expectancies and higher infant mortality rates. It is unacceptable that access to quality care can depend on someone’s race," they said. 

Access to health care alone does not dictate the health outcomes of people of color. Entrenched racial and socioeconomic disparities in education, employment, nutrition and diet, housing and economic security also have large impacts on the health of individuals and communities.  

The hospital CEOs conceded their organizations needed to do better at reaching people more likely to experience health disparities and making their health care systems easier to navigate, as well as using their platforms to advocate for more public health resources for the communities their hospitals serve.

In Memphis, protests have drawn hundreds since last Wednesday. The first three nights of demonstrations were largely peaceful with some verbal altercations between protesters, counterprotesters and law enforcement. 

On Saturday, a peaceful march downtown was followed several hours later by a verbal altercation between a small group of protesters — most of whom did not attend the earlier event — and police on horseback and with riot shields, which turned physical.

Mayor Jim Strickland has called for an investigation after a video taken by the Commercial Appeal showed one of the individuals arrested early Sunday morning appeared to have been tackled by Memphis police officers in riot gear. 

On Sunday, protesters marched downtown before attempting to block off the Interstate 55 overpass, marching onto the highway and later attempting to block the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. Law enforcement used tear gas to disperse protesters as they approached the DeSoto bridge, and some property damage ensued Downtown early Monday morning as police dispersed or arrested those who remained on the streets.

Protests on Monday and Tuesday ended peacefully around 10 p.m. each night, the curfew imposed by Strickland on Monday morning in response to the protests the week before. 

Corinne Kennedy is a reporter for the Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com or on Twitter @CorinneSKennedy