“Murder In Boston” Reopens The City’s Troubled History Of Race Relations: One Path Forward

Forbes Innovation Healthcare “Murder In Boston” Reopens The City’s Troubled History Of Race Relations: One Path Forward Sachin H. Jain Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I cover transformation and innovation across the health care industry. Following Click to save this article.

You'll be asked to sign into your Forbes account. Got it Jan 1, 2024, 12:41pm EST Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Carol and Charles Stuart on the day of their wedding, October 13, 1985. Carol Stuart was murdered by ... [+] her husband Charles in 1989 who claimed that they had been carjacked and that his wife was killed by the carjacker.

(Photo by Ira Wyman/Sygma via Getty Images) Sygma via Getty Images Charles Stuart shot his pregnant wife Carol and himself on the way out of a birthing class at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. When Stuart, a white man, called 911 for assistance, he implicated a fictitious “black man" who fled into Boston’s Mission Hill neighborhood.

With aggressive policing unchecked by a media and City Hall that was overly sympathetic to Stuart’s false story, Mission Hill became the backdrop for one of the most troubling chapters in the city’ s checkered history of race relations. The recent HBO documentary series, "Murder in Boston," reminds us of this history, but leaves us with a lingering question: How can Boston redeem itself? Mayor Michelle Wu took the first steps in this redemption by formally apologizing to the two men whose lives were most seriously affected by the Boston police's blind man hunt in Mission Hill—Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson—but there were far more victims than could ever be named.

The revival of this incident presents an opportunity to deliver reparative justice to a community and a people that suffered disproportionately for generations at the hands of the police, the media, and city government. I offer one way that the City of Boston may consider making right on its troubled past.

The City of Boston should declare Mission Hill and adjacent communities "health opportunity zones.” Boston, MA Boston Mayor Michelle Wu hands Alan Swanson a letter of apology as the Mayor apologizes ... [+] to the families of the Bennetts and Alan Swanson, who were accused in the Charles Stuart murder case on December 20.

(Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald) MediaNews Group via Getty Images Long before Mission Hill became overwhelmed by police brutality and an ill directed witch hunt, it was ground zero for profound health disparities. The City of Boston continues to acknowledge a high degree of racial segregation—and associated poor birth outcomes, asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic conditions affecting these and other neighborhoods.

The Stuart murder accentuated an underlying dynamic of distrust between the African American community and dominantly white institutions in the city of Boston—one that still seems resonant today. Nowhere are the implications of that distrust more profound and meaningful as health. Mission Hill stands adjacent to numerous world famous medical institutions in the Longwood Medical Area.

I had the benefit of training and working in these institutions, but was both always alarmed at the sometimes tense, and mostly absent relationship with neighboring communities. Minority patients from Mission Hill, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Roxbury would often enter these facilities uncertain of whether they would receive appropriate treatments; more often, they would stay out of these institutions altogether until they absolutely needed them.

As Nancy Oriol, a retired obstetric anesthesiologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and former Dean of Students at Harvard Medical School remarked to me, “The sad irony of the Stuarts taking a birthing class at the Brigham is how few men and women from adjacent Mission Hill likely availed themselves of these classes.” There simply wasn’t enough trust.

MORE FOR YOU ‘Rebel Moon’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New, Bad Movie Earth Closest To A ‘Super Sun’ As ‘Fireballs’ Fall: The Night Sky This Week In Photos: NASA’s Juno Flies Just 930 Miles Above Volcanoes On Jupiter’s Violent Moon Boston, MA Circa 1989: A Boston Police officer searches a man in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood ...

[+] circa 1989. (Photo by Photo Archive/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Boston Globe via Getty Images Declaring key neighborhoods in Boston as "health opportunity zones” would require wielding local regulation in unprecedented ways; soft and hard influence; and bold and meaningful financial commitments to create real bridges between Boston’s healthcare institutions and their neighbors.

The goal of declaring and investing in these zones would be simple: to acknowledge the most insidious and profound output of Boston’s deep history of racism—poor health—and flatten healthcare disparities in 5 years. The City could partner and co invest with the local medical, biotech, and managed care communities to create a more robust presence in underserved communities and funnel needed resources where they are needed.

Among the five features of these zones would be: 1) Data collection and media partnership on transparency : when communities don’t participate in health care, we are often left discovering disparities in care after they have already had a profound impact on health. The City of Boston should commit to an annual census like effort to annually capture in real time the state of health for residents of health opportunity zones.

This effort can build on some existing efforts through which hospitals perform community needs assessments. Boston is home to some of the finest health policy researchers in the nation. Local area foundations could fund these researchers to focus their energies on deriving insights from the data collected.

High level transparency around the state of health outcomes in the city accompanied by specific focus on it by Boston based media like The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and STAT , will keep a continued flashlight on the city’s problems and progress being made to address. Boston, MA October 23: Police investigate Charles Stuart's car on St.

Alphonsus St. in Mission ... [+] Hill after the murder of Carol Stuart. (Photo by Tom Herde/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Boston Globe via Getty Images 2) Home and community based health promotion and care : Boston’s robust network of community health centers creates an important resource for the community—but still rely on patients to seek and access care themselves.

The City of Boston should partner with community based organizations such as federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and mobile clinics like Harvard Medical School’s Family Van to support a small army of community members as community health workers. Every resident of a health opportunity zone should have a community health worker whose job it would be to engage them in their health and encourage them to live a healthier lifestyle.

Where patients are reluctant to access primary care, Boston’s major health institutions could deploy doctors and nurses to deliver care in patients’ homes; this could be particularly impactful for the frail elderly who often can’t easily make their way into healthcare facilities and suffer for it.

3) Co pay waivers and enhanced access to biopharmaceutical innovation : Co pays are often a major barrier for low income individuals to access care. Managed care companies and health systems should commit to waiving copays for primary care and other essential care for patients who reside in health opportunity zones; they might consider partnering with pharmaceutical and retail pharmacy partners to do so on essential drugs as well.

The health systems and managed care companies could split the bill for these waivers or the city might consider further increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to fund it and further discourage consumption of these substances. The City might consider how it could partner with Boston based biotech Vertex Pharmaceuticals on its pioneering new gene therapy to address sickle cell disease—Vertex has already made over $50m in investments in Boston—and ensure that every patient who needs access to it has it.

BOSTON, MA JANUARY 9, 1990: Hundreds of people including Boston Police Commissioner Francis M. ... [+] "Mickey" Roache, right center, gather for a prayer service at the Mission Church in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, the community where Charles Stuart's story of an attack on him and his wife touched off a manhunt, on Jan.

9, 1990. About three months prior, 300 people came to Mission Church to pray for Carol and Charles Stuart, who were shot on Oct. 23. Charles Stuart told police the Reading couple had been attacked by a black man in Mission Hill after leaving a birthing class at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The October service was meant to help heal the anger the community felt over that act of violence.

The pain residents felt, however, combined with rage when Charles Stuart committed suicide after learning he was a prime suspect in his wife's murder. In the wake of Stuart's suicide, Mission Hill and Boston's minority community has reacted against the stereotypes they feel were played up by Stuart, city and law enforcement officials, and the media.

(Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) Boston Globe via Getty Images 4) Health education : Health literacy is one of the greatest obstacles to improving health and misinformation is often an important driver of mistrust. Boston’s three prodigious medical schools Harvard, Tufts, and Boston University should expand their mission beyond medical education to health education to include educating the communities in which it resides on health and wellness—and produce high quality community programming to further engage residents of health opportunity zones.

Medical schools around the country are notorious for operating in isolation with of some of the communities in which they reside; building on some of their existing efforts, Boston’s medical schools could lead the way in demonstrating the commitment to urban health—and inspire generation of physicians and healthcare professionals to be sensitive to these needs in the process.

5) Community led governance : as we learn time and time again, one of the biggest challenges to the effectiveness of public health efforts is their top down nature. The health opportunity zone would need to be led by a combination of city officials and community members whose understanding of the problems and real issues will be vital to solving them.

Priority setting of the “health opportunity zone” should be led by community needs determined at the grassroots level with multi stakeholder involvement of community leaders, clergy, and others. Brigham and Women’s Hospital was where the Charles Stuart incident began. Could the institution ...

[+] play a role helping to build more trust with minorities in Boston? Getty Images With a multi stakeholder effort, Boston’s world famous medical institutions could finally make their presence more strongly felt in their own backyard—and begin to crack the code on one of the country’s most vexing, unaddressed problems: the profound differences in life expectancy between white people and minorities.

What if Boston’s sorrow and shame about Charles Stuart were to transform into a Boston miracle? In the era of growing backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, Murder in Boston powerfully states the case for greater focus on leveling the playing field for the city’s minorities—not less.

Apologies are great, but follow on action is critical. Let’s make sure that the lingering aftermath of Boston’s troubled history of race relations—highlighted by Carol Stuart’s racialized murder—translates into real benefit for the people whose lives have been profoundly affected by it. Acknowledgements : Thanks to Christopher Winship and Nancy Oriol for their editorial suggestions.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Sachin H. Jain Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.