December 1 is World AIDS Day; this blog today is dedicated to sharing more about that history through a book review by our esteemed historian Richard Atwood of North Carolina. The bleeding disorder community was deeply harmed and impacted by the spread of HIV through the nation’s blood supply in the late 1970s and early 1980s. We lost about half of our 20,000 population, with many more surviving with AIDS and/or hepatitis C.
Some statistics: About 88.4 million people have been infected with HIV and about 42.3 million people have died of AIDS. Globally, 39.9 million people were living with HIV by the end of 2023.
The book is Blood and Steel: Ryan White, the AIDS Crisis and Deindustrialization in Kokomo, Indiana, by Ruth D. Reichard. The 242-page book was published in 2021.
Richard writes:
Ryan White was born on December 6, 1971 in Kokomo, Indiana, a mid-sized American city. His mother, Jeanne White, had hemorrhaged and Ryan was subsequently diagnosed with hemophilia, so both were referred to hematologists in Indianapolis. A sister, Andrea, was born in 1973, the same year that Ryan became the poster child for the Howard County Hemophilia Society. Jeanne divorced, remarried, and moved to Windfall. Following a second divorce, Jeanne, as a single mother with two kids, moved back to Kokomo in 1984. Ryan attended Western Middle School in nearby Russiaville. He was diagnosed with AIDS in December 1984, becoming the 31st AIDS case in Indiana and the second case in Howard County. Rather than hide his AIDS diagnosis, Ryan bravely chose to be open about it. Ryan wanted to attend school, but some local activists wanted him barred from public schools. When Ryan returned to school on February 17, 1986, the Continental Steel Company locked its gates.
After 90 years as the largest employer on a 183-acre site in Kokomo, Continental Steel was bankrupt by 1980, then in Chapter 11 proceedings, that led to liquidation through Chapter 7 proceedings. Local residents were unaware that the former steel plant would become a Superfund toxic site due to massive chemical pollution that endangered the environment and the health of the workers. Certain citizens, instead, reacted to the “toxic” threat of a boy with hemophilia and AIDS wanting to attend school by bringing lawsuits to bar him. There was more national news about one boy than about an entire unemployed work force.
Ryan, the innocent and blameless victim, became a poster child for AIDS. Following reversed court decisions in 1986, Ryan entered the 8th grade at Western High School. Due to failing health and not being eligible for AZT, plus animosity at school, Ryan moved with his family to Cicero in 1987 to attend Hamilton Heights High School, where he was accepted. The Ryan White Story, a made for television movie, was shot in Statesville, North Carolina, then aired in January 1989. Ryan interacted with many celebrities. Ryan died on April 8, 1990 at age 18. Jeanne finished Ryan’s co-authored autobiography before she advocated in Washington for the Ryan White CARE Act of 1990. Jeanne remarried in 1992 and later moved to Florida. The Children’s Museum in Indianapolis created The Power of Children exhibit that preserved Ryan’s bedroom and told his story. Kokomo did not memorialize Ryan, while Cicero did. Kokomo turned the former Continental steel plant site into soccer fields.
Richard adds: This text, that compares and contrasts historical biographies of both a boy with hemophilia and AIDS and a failed steel factory, includes 27 pages for Chapter Notes, 10 pages for a Bibliography, 12 pages for an Index, and two photographs on the cover. The city of Kokomo reacted more to the toxicity of a boy with AIDS than to the toxicity of a polluted industrial site. For both Ryan and Continental Steel, there were multiple legal battles fought in the courts, the health system, and the educational system. Each chapter in the book contains sections on Blood, Steel, and Ryan White to reveal the ongoing events for both historical biographies, mainly from the 1980s, with updates to the present. The complex legal issues are clearly described and interpreted. The author, both an attorney and a historian, lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
