At a press conference Thursday morning, the American Civil Liberties Union criticized the Mississippi State Department of Health, alleging they are not doing enough to protect the community at risk for HIV because they did not apply for a portion of a $4 million grant that would have allocated funds for AIDS prevention in the state.

"The Health Department's position is that this funding wasn't applicable," noted Sarah Young, New Voices Fellow for the ACLU. "We want to be clear and share with you today that the funding was applicable. It could have been used to help our state."

According to Young, the application deadline for the grant was August. Dr. Mary Currier, state epidemiologist, said the department has to make decisions on a daily basis on whether or not they are going to apply for a grant.

"We always have to make a decision based on the best use of resources here as to whether or not we're going to apply for it," said Currier. "And this was one from what CDC says would have given us somewhere between $50,000 and $70,000. And at the time, we were applying for and working with another grant that would have given us $1.38 million over a 2-year period that we were working on instead."

Currier added that MSDH was awarded the grant and that the funds would go to expanded testing, particularly in areas where there is a majority of African-American individuals and areas where there are higher rates of HIV infections.

But Valencia Robinson, an organizer with the Mississippi AIDS Action, called the failure to apply for the other grant "discrimination and racism". If granted, the money would have been used to develop a statewide plan to deal with preventing HIV infection among African-American men, according to an official.

In response to the allegations, Currier said the MSDH has a long history of AIDS prevention, especially among the African-American community.

"Back in the 80's, the late 1980's, we looked at AIDS and HIV prevention across the state and realized there was a desperate burden among African Americans for HIV infections and AIDS," said Currier. "So, we started directing our funding to community based organizations and services for prevention and care that served the African American community."

Currier noted that with the state's current funding, there are over $10 million for AIDS prevention and services. She said that 78 percent of that goes to the African-American community. But officials at the press conference said there's always a need for more money.

"At this particular time, we have one perhaps two programs here in Jackson that focus on men and HIV AIDS," said Dr. Mark Colomb, CEO of My Brother's Keeper. "The rest of the state is not covered."

Young said in the future, she would love to work with the health department on issues related to the community.

"We believe that the citizens of a community have the duty and the right to hold government officials accountable in good times and in bad," said Young. "We're not here to vilify the Health Department, and in fact, we're looking forward to working in partnership with them."