Project Director

Cummiskey, Julia

Department Examiner

Thompson, Michael; Giles, David

Department

Honors College

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

The early years of the AIDS epidemic marked a tumultuous period of American history, calling into question the authority of doctors and the ability of scientists to cure disease. Already marginalized groups, such as gay men and intravenous drug users, appeared to be most vulnerable to a deadly virus with no cure or effective treatments. In the face of discrimination, activists rose up to provide necessary services for AIDS patients and advocate on their behalf. This activism uniquely characterized the early AIDS epidemic and permanently changed the field of biomedical research. The current historiography of AIDS activism tends to focus on a few prominent activist groups that existed in New York and San Francisco, but these are not the only locations where activism occurred. This thesis investigates AIDS activism specifically in the city of Atlanta, finding that this activism was very similar to that of other large cities. However, a significant portion of Atlanta’s AIDS activism was carried out by religious groups, unlike in New York or San Francisco. This provides insight into faith-based AIDS activism as a whole and suggests that it could be more important in the overall landscape of AIDS activism than previously assumed.

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

5-2020

Subject

AIDS (Disease)--Religious aspects; AIDS (Disease)--Social aspects; Social Participation

Location

Atlanta (Ga.)

Keyword

activism; AIDS; Atlanta; HIV; race; religion

Discipline

Immune System Diseases | Politics and Social Change

Document Type

Theses

Extent

58 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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