The Falcon

As parts of America wrestle with the issues of health care disparities that have been thrown into the spotlight with the disproportionate impact that COVID-19 has had on Black and Brown Americans, it is worth also considering how this community has been impacted by bias in the mental health field.

In 1946 the Lafargue Clinic, was a mental health clinic that opened in Harlem, New York and remained until 1958. 

The clinic was started by German-American psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, who recognized the dire state of mental health services for African Americans in New York. With the backing of black intellectuals Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison, as well as members of the church and community, the clinic operated out of the parish house basement of St. Philip's Episcopal Church and was among the first to provide low-cost psychiatric health services to the poor who could not afford treatment at New York hospitals or were victimized by racism from doctors and other hospital staff.  The staff consisted entirely of volunteers, and Wertham and Hilde Mosse were the clinic's lead doctors.

Wertham also was a staunch critic of violence in mass media and the impact this had on children.  He is perhaps most famous for his crusade against comics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seduction_of_the_Innocent

which he said led to juvenile delinquency:

This is the percentage of 18 year olds registered to vote by county in New York State. In NYC, Manhattan is second only to Queens, but still lags far behind many other counties in the state.