The Dynamics of African-American Health: A Historical Perspective

Abstract

There are many misconceptions about African American health that have subtle and continuing influence on health policy debates. Unfortunately, many of the misconceptions surrounding African American health have an implicit historical dimension, and the usual response for the lack of evidence in support of any myth is that “the data does not exist” to shed full light on the given question. This is unfortunate as there is now a growing body of evidence pertaining to the historical health of the African American population, and this data is currently being used to uncover a number of facts about the historical dynamics of African American health. In this paper, we show that our historical data on the health of African Americans is wholly lacking and at the same time show that one prominent myth about trends in African American health does not stand up to historical investigation. We conclude with a brief note about where this research is headed and what future topics should be explored in African American economic and health history.

Regional and Racial Inequality in Infectious Disease Mortality in U.S. Cities, 1900–1948

“…Without the very recent release of complete-count census data with clean city and age variables, our analysis would not have been possible. 4 For instance,Boustan and Margo (2016) noted that national black life expectancy estimates derived from vital statistics data in the early twentieth century are likely understated because they are based primarily on northern states, whose black residents predominantly lived in cities (see alsoLogan and Parman 2014).…”

The mortality consequences of distinctively black names

“…This can be seen in the data with several counties either not appearing in the database at all or having far fewer deaths than expected given the county populations and historical mortality rates. It is also confirmed by Missouri's legislative history.19 This process is more fully described inLogan and Parman [2014].20 Even once the death registration was standardized, compliance still varied. North Carolina would not achieve the standard of registration performance needed to be admitted to the federal death registration area until 1916.…”