On Wednesday, April 9, 2025, I had the honor of attending the Daniel S. Blumenthal Health Symposium at Morehouse School of Medicine—not just as a guest, but as a warmly invited and fully embraced community partner. From the moment I walked into the NCPC Auditorium, I felt seen, respected, and appreciated. It’s a rare and beautiful thing to be so genuinely welcomed into a space so rich in knowledge, leadership, and purpose—and for that, I am truly grateful.
This year’s theme, “Public Health for the Global Community,” couldn’t be more aligned with my life’s work. Presented by MSM’s Department of Community Health & Preventive Medicine in collaboration with the David Satcher Global Health Equity Institute and the Department of Public Health Education, the symposium brought together some of the brightest minds in public health, ethical leadership, and community advocacy.
As I sat in the auditorium, I proudly wore my “Promoting Health and Wellness” pin from Turning Point Action. To me, this symbol represents the belief that health, wellness, and access to care must always rise above party lines. These are human needs, not political talking points. And the people most impacted by poor outcomes need everyone at the table—regardless of where they stand politically.
One of the most powerful moments of the day came from Dr. Walter Fluker, whose message on ethical leadership and democratic space continues to echo in my heart. After the event, Dr. Fluker graciously shared the text of his address with me. With his permission and deep respect, I’m honored to include it here in full, exactly as he wrote it:
Plenty Good Room: Choosing Our Seat in the Global and National Struggle for Health Justice
By Dr. Walter Earl Fluker
I am absolutely delighted to be a part of this symposium named in honor of Dr. Daniel Blumenthal, a fierce fighter for health care equity and social justice. I offer my personal thanks to Dr. Virginia Floyd, another champion for health care equity and justice locally, nationally and globally. The title of my address is “Plenty Good Room: Choosing Our Seat in the Global and National Struggle for Health Justice.” This theme is taken from an old African American Spiritual, “Plenty Good Room.”
Plenty good room, plenty good room
Plenty good room in my Father’s kingdom
Plenty good room, plenty good room
Choose your seat and sit down.
I will proceed with a few reflections on the precarious present and the crisis of democratic life and its challenge to health care equity and justice. I define what I mean by democratic space and discuss what that means in relation your mission and goal to empower participants to achieve and advance optimal health through healthy lifestyles powered by policy, community, and clinical approaches[i]; discuss the shape of democratic space in Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of the World House as “plenty good room”; explore the notion of global citizenship and King’s vision of the World House as ethical markers of expanding democratic space beyond US territorialism; and what might be the implications of King’s vision for the education and formation of ethical leaders as global citizens and global health care agents.
Plenty Good Room
Huddled spoon-fashion in the filthy hatches of slave ships,[ii] incarcerated in tight slave quarters on plantations, prohibited from practicing citizenship rights and expressing the dignity of their full humanity, these “black and unknown bards of long ago” envisioned a space where there was “plenty good room.” The song expresses the deep sense of hope and expanding horizons of democracy that these enslaved Africans knew to be theirs despite the annihilation of space and the reordering of time for their black bodies.[iii] The emphatic tone of their lyrical assertion that there is “plenty good room” is both an imaginative conjuring of sequestered space and a moral demand for the reconfiguration of time and memory. It was their universal declaration of human rights rooted in their inherent sense of dignity and worth denied them by their oppressors.[iv] Yet, they were imagining a new world –what the late historian John Hope Franklin called “the land of room enough.”[v] And they believed so fervently in its possibility, that they invited all who would join them to choose their seats and sit down. And that is precisely what we must do if we are going to make your mission to empower participants to achieve and advance optimal health through healthy lifestyles powered by policy, community, and clinical approaches.
[ii] Sterling A. Brown, “Strong Men”, The Book of American Negro Poetry, edited by James Weldon Johnson (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922),.
They dragged you from homeland,
They chained you in coffles,
They huddled you spoon-fashion in filthy hatches,
They sold you to give a few gentlemen ease.
[iii] Walter Earl Fluker, “The Politics of Conversion and the Civilization of Friday,” in The Courage to Hope: from Black Suffering to Human Redemption, Quinton Dixie and Cornel West (eds.), (Boston: Beacon Press, 1999); and Willie James Jennings, The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 60.
[iv] Richard W. Wills, Sr., Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Image of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). See especially Chapter 6, “Beloved Community,” where Wills argues that beyond the philosophical labeling of the phrase, credited to Josiah Royce and his successors, the concept of “Beloved Community” for King was grounded in the imago Dei, which “provided the initial basis of the recognition of humanity’s common dignity.” Ibid., 140. In the words of Charles H. Long, the spirituals “resituate[d]” the problematic [of race] within the structures of inwardness as the locus for a new rhythm of time” and thus represented the appropriation of a mythos that provided meaning and affirmation of human dignity to an otherwise hopeless existence. Charles Long writes, “The slaves who lived both within and outside of history, created historical structures but having no power to determine the locus of their meaning found a spiritual locus outside the body of historical time in which to save their bodies and to give meaning to their communities. The spirituals were their myths, and as Ashis Nandy put it, the ‘affirmation of ahistoricity is an affirmation of the dignity and autonomy of the non-modern, [non-Western] peoples.’” Charles H. Long, “Howard Thurman and the Meaning of Religion in America,” in Mozella G. Mitchell, ed., The Human Search: Howard Thurman and the Quest for Freedom, Proceedings of the Second Annual Thurman Convocation, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Studies in Religion, Culture and Social Development, vol. 1 (New York: Peter Lang, 1992),141 (brackets in original).
[v] John Hope Franklin, “The Land of Room Enough,” Daedalus, 110, no. 2 (Spring, 1981): 1-12.
Dr. Fluker’s words reminded me that the movement for better health outcomes is deeply moral, rooted in dignity, history, and humanity. It’s about reclaiming space—physical, emotional, and spiritual—for those who’ve long been left out. And it’s about opening more seats, not fewer.
There is a unique beauty to common ground—and I felt that deeply throughout the day. Conversations around **housing, healthcare, family, and wellness—including mental health—**were shared not from partisan platforms, but from a place of human concern. These are everyone’s issues, and the fact that we could stand shoulder-to-shoulder in pursuit of solutions reminded me what’s possible when we lead with compassion.
I also want to take a moment to commend the brilliance, professionalism, and heart shown by so many during the symposium. Dr. Tabia Akintobi continues to be a guiding light in public health. Crystal, Rakale, Sabrina, and Kimberly-my fellow Board members at Morehouse School of Medicine’s PRS CCB (Prevention Research Center Community Coalition Board)—represented our shared work with grace and power. And the students—every single one I encountered—were inspiring, thoughtful, and showed us that the future of health leadership is in good hands. Big shout outs to Miss. Chloe A. Smith, BSPH.
Throughout the symposium, from the poster presentations to the panel on “The Urgency of Now,” I felt not only included but genuinely supported. The kindness and encouragement I received from faculty, students, and fellow guests was overwhelming in the best way.
Morehouse School of Medicine is not just an academic institution—it’s a movement rooted in love, service, and truth. I’m proud to be connected to this powerful work.
And most of all,
I AM MSM.
