Michael H. Forde

Michael H. Forde

@drmichaelhforde809K total followers

About

Dr. Michael H. Forde, DrPH, MSPH is a public health leader, author, and nationally recognized voice in health equity. A Gates Millennium Scholar and alumnus of The George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, he works at the intersection of data, policy, and culture to advance equitable access to care and strengthen community trust.With more than a decade of experience leading population health and statewide initiatives, Dr. Forde integrates evidence based practice, strategic insight, and cultural understanding to drive measurable improvements in health outcomes. Through a widely followed digital platform that has reached millions, he uses his signature message, “Healing starts with knowing,” to connect historical context to modern health realities. His work bridges scholarship and storytelling to make public health practical, accessible, and transformative.

Links

https://www.drmichaelhforde.com/

https://linktr.ee/drmichaelhforde

https://healingstartswithknowing.com/

Latest posts

We have all heard it before 😭

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A 28-year-old mother lost her insurance over a payment she could not afford. Without it, her chemotherapy stopped. She was fighting Stage 4 colon cancer with no way to afford treatment. She left behind her son. 😢 Research shows Black patients with metastatic colorectal cancer are less likely to receive chemotherapy and have higher mortality than white patients... even when they have the same insurance. This is not one story. This is a documented pattern. 😔 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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Before Dulles Airport (IAD) existed, there was Willard, Virginia, a self-sustaining Black town built by formerly enslaved people. Through eminent domain, the government took nearly 10,000 acres. Homes were demolished, a church was relocated, and families were forced out. My video telling their story just won a 21st Annual w3 Award 🏆 This award belongs to Willard's families and everyone who refused to forget. If you're interested in learning more about Willard, watch "The Hidden History of Willard, Virginia" on my YouTube. 🙏🏾

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Judge Judy said America is her home and if you don't like it go find another country... So let's talk about what that house is actually built on. 👀 By 1840 enslaved Black Americans grew 60 percent of the world's cotton and provided over half of all United States export earnings. Over 200 known enslaved individuals built the White House and not one of them was ever allowed inside it 👀 The question is whose name is actually on the deed. 🤷🏾‍♂️ Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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An American city dropped a bomb on a Black organization's home, burned down an entire Black neighborhood, and killed five Black children. 🕊️ On May 13, 1985, Philadelphia police fired 10,000 rounds, then dropped explosives on Osage Avenue. Officials let the fire burn, destroying 61 homes. Despite two grand jury investigations, nobody from the city was ever criminally charged. In 2023, survivor Mike Africa Jr. bought the house back to build a permanent memorial. 🏠 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A Black woman in an ER told staff Tylenol and Motrin don't work for her. They offered her the same two options again anyway. This isn't new. 🤷🏾‍♂️ In 1851, a physician invented a fake diagnosis claiming Black people felt less pain. A 2024 peer-reviewed study found women of color's pain is underestimated more than any other group's, even by trained observers watching real footage. The CDC confirms Black patients are less likely to receive pain medication at all. 👀 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A sneaker ad just reignited a conversation about imagery most Americans never learned the real history behind. 👀 After the Civil War, lynching photographs were turned into postcards and mailed as souvenirs, so widespread that by 1908 the U.S. Postmaster General banned them from the mail entirely. That visual language never fully disappeared. Decades later, activists began collecting the same postcards as evidence instead. Understanding this history isn't about taking a side, it's about knowing what these images actually cost. 🙏🏾 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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"Your consistent refusal to hear the pleas and concerns of Black Americans dictates our decision to be absent." That was the letter. In 1971, twelve members of Congress sent it to Nixon, then staged the first organized boycott of a State of the Union in American history. ✊🏾 He held out two months before finally meeting them. That same group formed the Congressional Black Caucus, still standing more than fifty years later. 🙏🏾 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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From 1993 to 1999, the Kennedy Krieger Institute - a Johns Hopkins affiliate - moved low-income Black families into homes with varying levels of lead paint, then tracked their children's blood lead levels to find the cheapest cleanup method. 👀 In 2001, Maryland's highest court compared it to the Tuskegee syphilis study. It took until 2019 for a jury to finally hold the institute liable. Johns Hopkins, whose review board approved it, was never named a defendant. 🤷🏾‍♂️ Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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She said she will never apologize for being white and she doesn't owe anyone anything because she's white 😭 Nobody asked her to apologize. But let's have the real conversation. The Homestead Act. The Social Security Act. The GI Bill. Sundown towns. Redlining. Urban renewal. Convict leasing. The Freedmen's Bank. Black Wall Street. The racial wealth gap documented by the Federal Reserve as just as large today as it was in 1962. Nobody built any of that to make her feel guilty. But somebody built all of it. 🤷🏾‍♂️ Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A Black family bought a California beach for $1,225 in 1912. A century later, their descendants sold it back for $20 million. But between those two moments, the city stole it through eminent domain, paying just $14,500 after they sued for $120,000. 😳 In 2022, LA County returned the deed, the first land return of its kind in American history. There are more families like the Bruces still waiting. Let's work together to reclaim what was taken at BlackLandcestry.com. ✊🏾 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A white man challenged a Black man to name 5 Black inventions and dismissed every single one 👀 So let's keep going. Lewis Howard Latimer made the lightbulb last long enough to change the world. Dr. Charles Drew saved countless lives during World War II. Marie Van Brittan Brown laid the foundation for every home security camera on the market. Dr. Mae Jemison was the first Black woman in space. And that is just the beginning. 🤷🏾‍♂️ Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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Raven-Symoné is questioning whether her own That’s So Raven character was Black 🤷🏾‍♂️ The same character in an episode who applied for a job at a mall and was told by the store manager... "I don’t hire Black people". The same show that aired that episode during Black History Month on the most mainstream family network in the world. Peer reviewed research confirms representation in media has a measurable impact on Black children’s self-concept 👀 The show knew exactly who she was. Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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Today is my birthday. Year 32. I woke up this morning just feeling… grateful. Like genuinely, deeply grateful. God has been so good to me. And today I really just want to slow down long enough to acknowledge that. I’m grateful to be alive. Grateful for my wife. Grateful for my family. Grateful for good people. Grateful for the people who love me, support me, pray for me, check on me, laugh with me, challenge me, and make life feel full. And I’m grateful for all of you too. I think birthdays have a way of reminding you that life really is precious. Tomorrow isn’t promised. And with everything happening in the world, I don’t take for granted the fact that I got to wake up this morning and see another year. I’m just thankful. You know what I mean? Like I'm thankful for what has been. I'm thankful for what is. And I'm excited for whatever God has in store for what’s next. I still have a lot I want to do. A lot I want to learn. A lot of stories I want to tell. A lot of good trouble

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A man had his skin peeled off his back for $37. 😳 That was Yusef Anthony’s payment for a Johnson & Johnson-funded study at Holmesburg Prison. For 23 years, a University of Pennsylvania dermatologist tested 250+ chemicals on mostly Black inmates. One discovery became Retin-A... J&J profited from it for decades. Today, J&J is still fighting billions in asbestos-talc lawsuits, including a $5.5 billion settlement. The company paid billions. Not one person was ever personally held accountable. 🤷🏾‍♂️ Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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She walked up to three Black girls and said you are all really pretty for Black girls. Then asked a Black man at KFC if fried chicken was in his nature. Then asked a Black woman working the counter if Colonel Sanders was forcing her to work there. And posted every single second of it for content. 🤦🏾‍♂️ On purpose. With a camera. For an audience. And then posted a video promoting her Christian church community 👀 The same mouth. The same phone. The same account. Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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Elvis wanted to record one of her songs. She said yes, then refused when his manager demanded half the publishing rights. She cried all night. 😔 Decades later, when Whitney Houston’s version of "I Will Always Love You" became one of the best-selling singles ever, every dollar in royalties came back to Dolly. She used part of it to invest in a predominantly Black Nashville neighborhood, calling it "the house that Whitney built." Rest easy, Dolly. 🕊️

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In 1881, Prudential announced Black policyholders would get one-third less payout than white policyholders... for the exact same premium. It was official company policy, backed by junk science. 🤷🏾‍♂️ By 1940, 4 in 10 insurers wouldn’t sell to Black families at all. It took until the early 2000s for real accountability: 16 lawsuits, nearly 15 million policies, $556 million in restitution. This isn’t new. It’s the original blueprint for being overcharged, and we’re still finishing that fight. ✊🏾 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A Black baby doll with a rope around its neck was dragged across the LSU campus on August 19th 2026 😭 The mother of the Black student walking alongside said the doll belonged to her daughter who meant it as a joke. I have one question. What is the joke? The Equal Justice Initiative documents over 550 racial terror lynchings in Louisiana between 1877 and 1950 👀 A rope around a Black body is not an abstract image in this country. It never has been. Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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A city of nearly 67,000 people... 76 percent Black... lost power for almost two weeks after a derecho with 99 mph winds ripped through Gary, Indiana on August 11th. 😤 Residents couldn’t refrigerate medication, roads went pitch black at night, and a man had all his teeth removed mid-surgery when the power cut out. Then came the part that should make everyone angry... Gary was initially left off NIPSCO’s power restoration list entirely. This is what infrastructure neglect looks like. 😔 Comment "RECEIPTS" below and I’ll send you the full story on this topic and free access to the Healing Starts With Knowing Library directly to your DMs. 👇🏾

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