BATTLE AGAINST AIDS HITS STREETS

Rally - National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day

For a few minutes Monday morning, traffic at busy intersections in downtown
Raleigh stopped dead as 300 people and a marching band trekked down Jones
Street toward the Legislative Building to rally against AIDS in the
African-American community.

The march -- the first statewide event of its kind on National Black
HIV/AIDS Awareness Day -- drew activists, church groups, AIDS patients,
state health leaders and others. Some of the marchers held up dollar bills
and demanded an infusion of $10 million in state funding to battle a
disease that is devastating the black community.

In 2003, seven of every 10 HIV cases in North Carolina were among
African-Americans, and AIDS ranks as the seventh-leading cause of death
among the state's black population.

"We must continue to fight against bigotry and discrimination," said Dr.
Lorna Harris, who heads a health coalition of historically black colleges
and universities. "How often have we heard it is 'those people' who have
HIV? Like they are not connected to our community."

State HIV advocates are calling on the legislature to allocate $3.3 million
in 2006 and 2007 for HIV prevention efforts, $6.5 million for a
drug-assistance program that helps the working poor pay for expensive HIV
medications and $550,000 for a needle exchange program aimed at curbing
infections through intravenous drug use.

But that goal was acknowledged as difficult. Just getting the attention of
legislators proved a challenge, even with the heart-thumping drumbeat of
the N.C. Central University marching band leading the march.

"Are there any of my colleagues in the audience?" asked Rep. Thomas Wright,
a Democrat from Wilmington who has pressed for HIV funding. No one
responded. "Many of my colleagues have yet to see the light."

Wright noted that most legislators arrive in Raleigh late on Mondays for an
evening session, and he said he is optimistic that the issue is at least
being talked about. Among his goals is the needle exchange, in which IV
drug users could turn in used needles for clean ones. It would require a
change in drug paraphernalia laws, however, and would likely meet
opposition from law enforcement agencies, he said.

But he and others called on the black community to become active, taking a
cue from the gay community that rallied for AIDS research and treatment
when the disease first hit in the 1980s. The ultimate goal, they said, was
to unite people in the fight against the disease.

"We have to be careful that we don't isolate ourselves as a people in this
epidemic," said the Rev. Clifford Jones, senior minister of Friendship
Missionary Baptist Church in Charlotte.

"HIV/AIDS is not just an African-American problem."