Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Black leaders urge fight against AIDS - AIDS - MSNBC.com

Black leaders urge fight against AIDS - AIDS - MSNBC.com: "TORONTO - It is time for the African-American community 'to face the fact that AIDS has become a black disease' and find ways to defeat it, said the chairman of the NAACP at the international AIDS summit Monday.

Julian Bond, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and other powerful African-American leaders called on their own community to accept responsibility for ending the devastation of AIDS, which has claimed more than 200,000 black Americans since the epidemic began 25 years ago.

In a first for the political leaders, they blamed the disaster on a lack of will and pledged to do more.