Planned Parenthood Action Fund Celebrates Social and Reproductive Justice with Eleanor Hinton Hoytt

Planned Parenthood Action Fund sits down with Black Women's Health Imperative's president and CEO, Eleanor Hinton Hoytt, to celebrate Black History Month.

As a women's health advocate, she reflects upon the roots of her activism and commitment to social and reproductive justice, born from her experiences of the intersections of the civil rights movement and the struggle with gender inequality in America.

Transcript:

"Planned Parenthood Action Fund Celebrates Social and Reproductive Justice with Eleanor Hinton Hoytt" - Video transcript:

TEXT: Planned Parenthood Celebrates Black History Month

TEXT: Eleanor Hinton Hoytt Women's Health Advocate

TEXT: Eleanor Hinton Hoytt President and CEO, Black Women's Health Imperative

ELEANOR HINTON HOYTT: I was born to fight for civil rights and for, uh, women's rights. When I was in high school I recalled so clearly the beginning of the civil rights movement in Greensboro, North Carolina.

I'm from Durham North Carolina, when we had the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs and my father used to take me to churches to hear Martin Luther King and then I moved to Atlanta I went to Spellman College in Atlanta during the height of the civil rights movement.

And so for me, knowing that I never had an equal opportunity, I never had the right to be who I wanted to be when I grew up and when I was in college. Even though Spellman is an all women's college, a black women's college in Atlanta, that's known for producing leaders. We also knew during that time that we had our place.

My passion is fueled by the many, many years of not feeling that black women, and poor women, and other women of color get the justice that they need- that they deserve.

The person I most admire, who has been a champion for women's rights, is Dorothy Irene Height. Doctor Height, as you know passed just a few years ago but she was a friend, mentor, and my boss for many years. Dr. Height was a champion for justice. She started the racial justice institute at the YWCA and she fought for being at the table of the civil rights movement. So she looked at racial justice as well as gender justice as just part of her core foundation.

One of the things that I'm most proud of is that the black community came out, en mass, in support of President Obama and Health Care Reform.

We understand that prevention, wellness, screenings are important. Our girls and boys deserve to be healthy. Deserve to have a healthy sense of self, a healthy sense of body, a healthy sense that they belong to a community and to a society that cares about them.