At a town hall meeting at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts in Oakland on Tuesday, "Cookie" Johnson joined HIV/AIDS patients and a local physician in urging African-American women to become educated about the disease. The program -- part of the "I Stand with Magic" campaign spearheaded by her husband, former NBA star Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- followed a session of free, rapid HIV testing provided by the California Prevention and Education Project.

Johnson shared with the women her reaction when her husband told her -- just months after their wedding in September 1991 -- that he was HIV-positive. Her first reaction was to slap him, a "love tap," she said. Then, "I told him I was going to stand by him and we were going to fight this thing together," she recalled. Johnson had learned just two weeks prior that she was pregnant; their son recently turned 16.

Johnson committed herself to raising HIV awareness among black women after learning they are disproportionately affected by HIV. The most recent CDC data show black women are diagnosed with AIDS nearly 23 times as often as white women. "Maybe they'll wake up and listen to me," she said she remembers thinking. "It can happen to anyone at anytime if you're not protecting yourself," Johnson said.

"Some people look great, they feel fine, but the foundation of their body is being eroded," added Dr. Robert Scott of Sutter East Bay Medical Foundation.

During her 20-minute talk, Johnson called on black churches to join the fight against HIV/AIDS. "The church needs to really get on board with doing some real forgiveness," she said.

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