C. Virginia Fields recently retired from her position as president/CEO of the National Black Leadership Commission on Health (“Black Health”). Before that position, she served as president of the borough of Manhattan between 1998 and 2005. She also served as a member of the New York City Council between 1989 and 1998. Prior to elected office, Fields had an impactful career in social work. She spoke with the Amsterdam News for a Q&A about her career, health in the Black community, and future plans post-retirement from Black Health. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Please tell the AmNews readers about your background
C. Virginia Fields: The National Black Leadership Commission on Health was formerly named National Black Leadership Commission on AIDS but back in 2019, after a two-year rebranding process, the board voted and we renamed the organization . . .because . . .our work was across a number of areas that disproportionately impact African Americans and we wanted a name that more fully reflected who we are what we do. The expansion of the focus areas now includes HIV, Hepatitis C, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer, prostate cancer, mental health, diabetes, and sickle cell. Based on data, those are the eight areas that most disproportionately impact Black people and the vision is to create equity through education, advocacy, and policy.
[Prior to Black Health] I served eight years as the president of the borough of Manhattan. . . .and [before that] I was a City Council Member representing Central Harlem, parts of East Harlem and the Upper West Side. By profession, I am a social worker, having received my master’s degree in social work from Indiana University and worked in the field prior to elected office. Being a social worker, I say this quite often, is part of what led me to even think about running for public office because social work is a helping profession. That’s why I went into social work because coming out of the background of growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, I learned very early about the impact of racism and how it made Black people subjected to things that unfortunately we’re seeing efforts to put back in place today [such as] Jim Crow laws. So growing up in that environment [and] seeing Black adults not be able to vote and as a teenager, even before I was able to vote myself, going through the community helping them, going through this book that they had to know everything: what’s the state flag, who’s the lieutenant governor, what’s the name of the state bird which obviously had nothing to do with their ability but it was a disincentive. I grew up in that environment and then when Dr. King came and led the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama at the invitation of my pastor, the late Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, I was a part of that struggle. I marched, went to jail for six days, and actively
participated. [It helped] to frame my thinking about the importance of
engagement and what can be done when we do something, not just stand back and see
conditions that you find deplorable . . .so my political activities came out of early training and early engagement and that’s how I would pretty much describe my life.
AmNews: Juneteenth 2024 was named C. Virginia Fields Day in New York by Mayor Eric Adams. What are your thoughts about the Mayor designating that day for you?
CVF: I was very honored and I was very humbled by the words that he chose which
framed my background and my work during the years. He captured it and I
was very honored and humbled to receive that.
AmNews: What is next for you after retirement?
CVF: Retiring [will] certainly give me an opportunity to focus on some other areas that I have spent my life [on] but have not dived into as deeply.
AmNews: July 21 was Zero HIV Stigma Day and July 28 was World Hepatitis Day. Both conditions have a significant impact on the Black community. Please talk about your work destigmatizing these and other diseases?
CVF: Based on all of the work that we’ve done, the need continues, the work continues, unfortunately stigmatization continues in these areas so much so that we find people still who may become diagnosed with HIV not wanting people to know it because they don’t want to be ostracized, despite the antiretroviral treatments. We certainly have made tremendous progress in terms of voluntarily [testing] for HIV. . .[but] ultimately to get to zero [HIV Stigma] I think is going to require a vaccine. In the meantime [we need] adherence to a lot of the advances and the treatments coupled with education, advocacy, policy, and resources.
AmNews: Is there anything you would like to add for the AmNews readers?
CVF: My work has come from my beliefs and desires to make a difference whether it was very early on helping people to vote in Birmingham as I said, whether it was working in the field as a social worker, working in each one of the places I’ve been and certainly working in elected office has been important to use positions to make a difference. Whether it’s an organization or whether it’s a political office, the time that you’re there, think about how you can use it to create change and real impact, not just the next election. We have [a finite] amount of time in these positions that we serve. . . What are you building to make sure that the work you do does not get lost?