Protests of the closing of the Lincoln Detox Center
It’s the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement has gained
momentum. Martin Luther King, Jr is marching to end Jim Crow. In the
neighborhoods, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense is changing daily life
in the streets. They organize to oppose police brutality, educate people of
their rights, and create social programs, such as Free Breakfast for School
Children. As a response, drugs were pumped into their communities.
Heroin addiction was quickly destroying people and their
families. To combat this onslaught, the Black Panthers used acupuncture. In
1970, they took over the rundown Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx and turned it
into the Lincoln Detox Center. Here they administered acupuncture to thousands
of patients, successfully helping them with addiction, until a forced shut down
in 1979 by an army of 200 police officers closed their doors.
