 |
 |
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
| National Center For Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion | ||||||||
|
|
||||||||
| TIPS Home | What's New | Mission | Fact Sheets | Site Map | Contact Us | ||||||||
|
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Mission: To include tobacco control in Black History Month as part of a comprehensive tobacco prevention and control program to reduce tobacco prevalence among African Americans.
Objectives: This guide is designed for educators and other community leaders to raise awareness of tobacco use among African Americans. It also serves to encourage students and community members to take action to reduce tobacco use.
Rationale: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking among African-American teens has increased 56 percent in the 1990s. If current patterns continue, an estimated 1.6 million African Americans who are now under the age of 18 will become regular smokers. About 500,000 of those smokers will die of a smoking related disease.
| Ebony
Magazine Ms. Lynn Norment, Managing Editor 820 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60605 Telephone number - (312) 322-9200 |
ESSENCE
Magazine Essence Communications Partners Ms. Monique Greenwood, Editor-in-Chief 1500 Broadway, 6th floor New York, NY 10036 Telephone number - (212) 642-0600 |
Jet
Magazine Mr. Malcolm West, Managing Editor 820 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL 60605 Telephone number - (312) 322-9200 |
News
Release
FOR
IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
Contact:
Phone:
Date:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking among African-American teens has increased 56 percent in the 1990s. Students at (name of school or coalition name) pledged to end this trend by introducing (name of tobacco reduction program) and sending letters to the tobacco industry on (date) at (time) at (location address).
"This increase is particularly striking, since African-American youths had the greatest decline of tobacco use among minorities during the 1970s and 1980s, but the steepest increase in use in the 1990s," said (spokesperson).
To counter this rise, students have (discuss new program or current efforts to reduce tobacco use here). After reviewing Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I Have a Dream" speech and information on tobacco use among African Americans, students (or community members) discussed how they can counter the effects of the tobacco industry promotion.
According to the CDC, if current patterns continue, an estimated 1.6 million African Americans who are now under the age of 18 will become regular smokers. About 500,000 of those smokers will die of a smoking-related disease. In reference to the 1998 Surgeon General’s report which was the first to focus on tobacco use among ethnic and racial minorities, Surgeon General Dr. Satcher said, "Unless the trends are reversed, these increases in tobacco use are a time-bomb for the health of our minority populations."
For more information call (name of contact or coalition) at (telephone number). Also, a detailed summary of the Surgeon General’s report, Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups, and other related information can be found on CDC’s Web site (http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco).
Whereas, each year, approximately 45,000 African Americans die from a preventable smoking-related disease,3
Whereas, middle-aged and older African Americans are far more likely than their counterparts in other major racial/ethnic minority groups to die from coronary heart disease, stroke, or lung cancer,
Whereas, approximately three of every four African American smokers prefer menthol cigarettes. Among whites, approximately one quarter of smokers prefer menthol cigarettes. Menthol may facilitate absorption of harmful cigarette smoke constituents,1
Whereas, among adult African American smokers the most popular brands are Newport, Kool, and Salem. Similar brand preference was found among African American teens with 61.3% preferred Newport, 10.9% preferred Kool, and 9.7% preferred Salem,1
Whereas, smoking declined dramatically among African American youths during the 1970s and 1980s, but has increased substantially during the 1990s.
Whereas, prevalence of cessation (the percentage of persons who have smoked at least 100 cigarettes and quit) is higher among whites (50.5%) than among African Americans (35.4%),1
Whereas, a one-year study found that three major African American publications — Ebony, Jet, and Essence — received proportionately higher profits from cigarette advertisements than did other magazines,1
Whereas, if current patterns continue, an estimated 1.6 million African Americans who are now under the age of 18 will become regular smokers. About 500,000 of those smokers will die of a smoking-related disease, and
Whereas, community members in (name of location) are actively involved in reducing the death and disability caused by tobacco use.
Now, therefore, I, (Name of Governor or Official), (Governor or Official) of (Name of Sate or Area), do hereby proclaim February as Black History Month.
| ____________________________ | ____________________ |
| Signature | Date |
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring. When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
African Americans continue to suffer disproportionately from chronic and preventable disease compared with white Americans.1 Of the three leading causes of death in African Americans—heart disease, cancer, and stroke—smoking and other tobacco use are major contributors.2
Office
on
Smoking
and
Health,
Centers
for
Disease
Control
and
Prevention
4770
Buford
Highway,
Mail
Stop
K50
Atlanta,
GA
30341-3717
Phone:
770-488-5705,
push
#3
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco
CDC Media Campaign Resource Center-Listed below are TV, radio, and print advertisements featuring African Americans.
Wave I Binder-
Wave II Binder-
Wave III Video-
|
|
|
Privacy Policy | Accessibility TIPS Home | What's New | About Us | Site Map | Contact Us CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z This page last reviewed January 14, 2004 United States
Department of Health and Human Services |
|
