Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:17:32.080Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE TOLL OF INEQUALITY

Excess African American Deaths in the United States over the Twentieth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2020

Mary R. Jackman  and
Kimberlee A. Shauman
Mary R. Jackman*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis
Kimberlee A. Shauman
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis
*
*Corresponding author: Mary R. Jackman, Research Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616. E-mail: mrjackman@ucdavis.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To take stock of the human toll resulting from racial inequality in the United States, we estimate the number of excess deaths that accumulated among African Americans over the twentieth century as a result of the enduring racial gap in mortality rates. We assemble a wide array of demographic and vital statistics data for all years since 1900 to calculate the number of Black deaths in each half-decade that occurred in excess of what would be projected if Blacks had experienced the same gender- and age-specific mortality rates as Whites. We estimate that there were almost 7.7 million excess deaths among African Americans from 1900 through 1999. Those deaths comprised over 40% of all African American deaths over the century.

Excess deaths were highest in the early decades (peaking in 1925–1934), but the only period of sustained decline was 1935–1949. Subsequent reductions in excess deaths were relatively modest and unstable, and in the last decade of the century the percentage of Blacks’ deaths that were excess returned to levels as high as in the first decade. That trajectory is less positive than the trajectory for the racial gap in life expectancy over the century.

Excess deaths fell disproportionately among the young in the early twentieth century, but in the succeeding decades they progressively hit harder among older African Americans, many of them in the prime of life when their economic and social pursuits were vital to their families and communities. Excess deaths were also especially heavy among Black women for most of the century.

We conclude by discussing the social and policy implications of the excess deaths. We assess trends in the early twenty-first century as we consider the political challenges involved in tackling the continuing excess death toll.

Keywords

Racial StratificationExcess MortalityLife ExpectancySocioeconomic InequalitiesTrends
Type
State of the Discipline
Information
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , Fall 2019 , pp. 291 - 340
Copyright
Copyright © Hutchins Center for African and African American Research 2020 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Adler, Nancy E., and Stewart, Judith (Eds.) (1999). Socioeconomic Status and Health in Industrial Nations: Social, Psychological and Biological Pathways. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896.Google Scholar
Adler, Nancy E., and Stewart, Judith (Eds.) (2010). The Biology of Disadvantage: Socioeconomic Status and Health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Alexander, Michelle (2010). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Monica J., Kiang, Mathew V., and Barbieri, Magali. (2018). Trends in Black and White Opioid Mortality in the United States, 1979-2015." Epidemiology 29(5): 707–15.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Algert, Susan J., Agrawal, Aditya, and Lewis, Douglas S. (2006). Disparities in Access to Fresh Produce in Low-income Neighborhoods in Los Angeles. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30(5): 365–70.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Allard, Scott W., Tolman, Richard M., and Rosen, Daniel (2003). Proximity to Service Providers and Service Utilization among Welfare Recipients: The Interaction of Place and Race. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 22(4): 599–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, James, Als, Hilton, Lewis, John, and Litwack, Leon F. (2000). Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America. Santa Fe, NM: Twin Palms.Google Scholar
Alsan, Marcella, and Goldin, Claudia (2015). Watersheds in Infant Mortality: The Role of Effective Water and Sewerage Infrastructure, 1880 to 1915. NBER Working Paper No. 21263.Google Scholar
Anderson, Barbara A., and Silver, Brian D. (1985). Demographic Analysis and Population Catastrophes in the USSR. Slavic Review, 44(3): 517–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kathryn Freeman (2017a). Racial Residential Segregation and the Distribution of Auxiliary Health Care Practitioners Across Urban Space. In Jacobs Kronenfeld, Jennie (Ed.), Health and Health Care Concerns Among Women and Racial and Ethnic Minorities, pp. 145–167. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing Limited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kathryn Freeman (2017b). Racial Residential Segregation and the Distribution of Health-related Organizations in Urban Neighborhoods. Social Problems, 64(2): 256–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kathryn Freeman (2018). Racial/Ethnic Residential Segregation, the Distribution of Physician’s Offices, and Access to Health Care: The Case of Houston, Texas. Social Sciences, 7(8): 119–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, Kathryn Freeman, and Fullerton, Andrew S. (2012). Racial Residential Segregation and Access to Health-care Coverage: A Multilevel Analysis. In Jacobs Kronenfeld, Jennie (Ed.), Issues in Health and Health Care Related to Race/Ethnicity, Immigration, SES and Gender, pp. 133–58. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansell, David A. (2017). The Death Gap: How Inequality Kills. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Antonovsky, Aaron (1967). Social Class, Life Expectancy, and Overall Mortality. Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly, 45(2): 31–73.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ard, Kerry (2016). By All Measures: An Examination of the Relationship Between Segregation and Health Risk from Air Pollution. Population and Environment 38(1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, James ([1962] 1991). The Fire Next Time. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Baum, Andrew, Garofalo, J. P., and Yali, Ann Marie (1999). Socioeconomic Status and Chronic Stress: Does Stress Account for SES Effects on Health? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896(1): 131–144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beardsley, Edward H. (1987). A History of Neglect: Health Care for Blacks and Mill Workers in the Twentieth-Century South. Knoxville, TN: Univ. of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Beaulac, Julie, Kristjansson, Elizabeth, and Cummins, Steven (2009). Peer Reviewed: A Systematic Review of Food Deserts, 1966–2007. Preventing Chronic Disease, 6(3). <http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/ issues/2009/jul/08_0163.htm> (accessed April 11, 2020).Google ScholarPubMed
Blackmon, Douglas A. (2008). Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Bor, Jacob, Cohen, Gregory H., and Galea, Sandro (2017). Population Health in an Era of Rising Income Inequality: USA, 1980–2015. The Lancet 389(10077): 1475–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bower, Kelly M., Thorpe, Roland J., Rohde, Charles, and Gaskin, Darrell J. (2014). The Intersection of Neighborhood Racial Segregation, Poverty, and Urbanicity and its Impact on Food Store Availability in the United States. Preventive Medicine, 58: 33–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brailsford, Jennifer M., Hill, Terrence D., Burdette, Amy M., and Jorgenson, Andrew K. (2018). Are Socioeconomic Inequalities in Physical Health Mediated by Embodied Environmental Toxins? Socius 4: 1–9.Google Scholar
Braveman, Paula, Jane, An, Williams, David, and Egerter, Susan (2009). Race and Socioeconomic Factors Affect Opportunities for Better Health. Issue Brief 5 (April): Race and Socioeconomic Factors . Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America: Commissionhealth.org.Google Scholar
Burghart, D. Brian (2019). Fatal Encounters Project . <https://fatalencounters.org/> (accessed November 11, 2019).Google Scholar
Burris, Heather H., Lorch, Scott A., Kirpalani, Haresh, Pursley, DeWayne M., Elovitz, Michal A., and Clougherty, Jane E. (2019). Racial Disparities in Preterm Birth in USA: A Biosensor of Physical and Social Environmental Exposures. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 104(10): 931–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Byrd, W. Michael, and Clayton, Linda A. (2002). An American Health Dilemma, Volume II: Race, Medicine, and Health Care in the United States 1900–2000. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cagney, Kathleen A., and Cornwall, Erin York (2018). Place, Aging, and Health. In Hayward, Mark D. and Majmundar, Malay (Eds.), Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop, pp. 131–155. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Case, Anne, and Deaton, Angus (2015). Rising Morbidity and Mortality in Midlife Among White Non-Hispanic Americans in the Twenty-first Century. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(49): 15078–15083.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Case, Anne, and Deaton, Angus (2020). Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chae, David H., Nuru-Jeter, Amani M., Adler, Nancy E., Brody, Gene H., Lin, Jue, Blackburn, Elizabeth H., and Epel, Elissa S. (2014). Discrimination, Racial Bias, and Telomere Length in African-American Men. American Journal of Preventive Medicine,46(2): 103–111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Checchi, Francesco, and Roberts, Les (2005). Interpreting and Using Mortality data in Humanitarian Emergencies: A Primer for Non-epidemiologists. Network Paper Number 52. London: Humanitarian Practice Network.Google Scholar
Chetty, Raj, Michael Stepner, , Abraham, Sarah, Lin, Shelby, Scuderi, Benjamin, Turner, Nicholas, Bergeron, Augustin, and Cutler, David (2016). The Association Between Income and Life Expectancy in the United States, 2001–2014. JAMA, 315(16): 1750–1766.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clougherty, Jane E., Kerry Souza, , and Cullen, Mark R. (2010). Work and Its Role in Shaping the Social Gradient in Health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 102–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Coale, Ansley J., and Zelnik, Melvin (1963). New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United States. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coale, Ansley J. (1991). Excess Female Mortality and the Balance of the Sexes in the Population: An Estimate of the Number of “Missing Females”. Population and Development Review, 17: 517–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coale, Ansley J., and Rives, Norfleet W. (1973). A Statistical Reconstruction of the Black Population of the United States 1880–1970: Estimates of True Numbers by Age and Sex, Birth Rates, and Total Fertility. Population Index, 39(1): 3–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Patricia (2020). Straggling in a Good Economy and Now Struggling in a Crisis. The New York Times. April 16.Google Scholar
Cohen, Stanley (2001). States of Denial: Knowing about Atrocities and Suffering. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Creanga, Andreea A., Syverson, Carla, Seed, Kristi, and Callaghan, William M. (2017). Pregnancy-related Mortality in the United States, 2011–2013. Obstetrics and Gynecology, 130(2): 366–373.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crimmins, Eileen (2018). Trends in Mortality, Disease, and Physiological Status in the Older Population. In Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop, pp. 3–29. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Crosby, Alfred W. (1986). Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Currie, Janet, and Joseph Hotz, V. (2004). Inequality in Life and Death: What Drives Racial Trends in U.S. Child Death Rates? In Neckerman, Kathryn M. (Ed.), Social Inequality, pp. 569–632 . New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Cutler, David M., and Miller, Grant (2005). The Role of Public Health Improvements in Health Advances: The Twentieth-century United States. Demography, 42(1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dart, Helen M. (1921). Maternity and Child Care in Selected Rural Areas of Mississippi. Rural Child Welfare Series no. 5, Children’s Bureau Publication no. 88. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
Demeny, Paul, and Gingrich, Paul (1967). A Reconsideration of Negro-White Mortality Differentials in the United States. Demography, 4(2): 820–837.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Diez Roux, Ana V., and Mair, Christina (2010). Neighborhoods and Health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 125–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Drake, Saint C., and Cayton, Horace R. ([1945] 1970). Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. Chicago:IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dray, Philip (2002). At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt ([1899] 1996). The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Duggan, Mark, and Scimeca, Valerie (2017). Safety Net. Pathways Magazine, Special issue: 13–15.Google Scholar
Dunn, Halbert L. (1968). Vital Statistics of the United States 1950: U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Eckholm, Erik (2007). In Turnabout, Infant Deaths Climb in South. The New York Times. April 22.Google Scholar
Elkins, Stanley M. (1968). Slavery, 2nd edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Elo, Irma T. (2001). New African American Life Tables from 1935–1940 to 1985–1990. Demography, 38(1): 97–114.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elo, Irma T., and Drevenstedt, Greg L. (2004). Cause-specific Contributions to Black-White Differences in Male Mortality from 1960 to 1995. Demographic Research, Special Collection 2(April): 255–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epel, Elissa S., Lin, Jue, Wilhelm, Frank H., Wolkowitz, Owen M., Cawthon, Richard, Adler, Nancy E., Dolbier, Christyn, Mendes, Wendy B., and Blackburn, Elizabeth H. (2006). Cell Aging in Relation to Stress Arousal and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 31(3): 277–287.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Equal Justice Initiative (2015). Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror. Equal Justice Initiative. <https://eji.org/reports/lynching-in-america/> (accessed December 5, 2019).+(accessed+December+5,+2019).>Google Scholar
Evans, Gary W., and Kim, Pilyoung (2010). Multiple Risk Exposure as a Potential Explanatory Mechanism for the Socioeconomic Status–Health Gradient. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 174–189.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ewbank, , Douglas, C. (1987). History of Black Mortality and Health Before 1940. The Milbank Quarterly, 65, Supplement 1 (Part 1): 100–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Farley, Reynolds (1970). Growth of the Black Population: A Study of Demographic Trends. Chicago, IL: Markham.Google Scholar
Farley, Reynolds (1996). The New American Reality: Who We Are, How We Got Here, Where We Are Going. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Farley, Reynolds, and Allen, Walter R. (1987). The Color Line and the Quality of Life in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Farmer, Paul (2001). Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Feagin, Joe R. (1991). The Continuing Significance of Race: Antiblack Discrimination in Public Places. American Sociological Review, 56(1): 101–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiscella, Kevin, and Sanders, Mechelle R. (2016). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Quality of Health Care. Annual Review of Public Health 37: 375–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frakt, Austin, and Monkovic, Toni (2019). A ‘Rare Case Where Racial Biases’ Protected African-Americans. The New York Times. December 2.Google Scholar
Freese, Jeremy, and Lutfey, Karen (2011). Fundamental Causality: Challenges of an Animating Concept for Medical Sociology. In Pescosolido, Bernice A., Martin, Jack K., McLeod, Jane D., and Rogers, Anne (Eds.), Handbook of the Sociology of Health, Illness, and Healing, pp. 67–81. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gee, Gilbert C., and Ford, Chandra L. (2011). Structural Racism and Health Inequalities: Old Issues, New Directions. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 8(1): 115–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gennuso, Keith P., Blomme, Courtney K., Givens, Marjory L., Pollock, Elizabeth A., and Roubal, Anne M. (2019). Deaths of Despair(ity) in Early Twenty-first Century America: The Rise of Mortality and Racial/Ethnic Disparities. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 57(5): 585–591.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genovese, Eugene D. (1972). Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Geronimus, Arline T. (1992). The Weathering Hypothesis and the Health of African-American Women and Infants: Evidence and Speculations. Ethnicity and Disease, 2(3): 207–221.Google ScholarPubMed
Geronimus, Arline T, Bound, John, and Colen, Cynthia G (2011). Excess Black Mortality in the United States and in Selected Black and White High-Poverty Areas, 1980–2000. American Journal of Public Health 101(4): 720–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geronimus, Arline T., Bound, John, Waidmann, Timothy A., Hillemeier, Marianne M., and Burns, Patricia B. (1996). Excess Mortality among Blacks and Whites in the United States. New England Journal of Medicine, 335(21): 1552–1558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geronimus, Arline T., Hicken, Margaret, Keene, Danya, and Bound, John (2006a). “Weathering” and Age Patterns of Allostatic Load Scores among Blacks and Whites in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 96(5): 826–833.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Geronimus, Arline T., Colen, Cynthia G., Shochet, Tara, Ingber, Lori Barer, and James, Sherman A. (2006b). Urban-Rural Differences in Excess Mortality among High-poverty Populations: Evidence from the Harlem Household Survey and the Pitt County, North Carolina Study of African American Health. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 17(3): 532–558.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gini, Corrado (1921). Measurement of Inequality of Incomes. The Economic Journal, 31(March): 124–126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goffman, Alice (2015). On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City. New York: Picador.Google Scholar
Haines, Michael R. (1989). American Fertility in Transition: New Estimates of Birth Rates in the United States, 1900–1910. Demography, 26(1): 137–148.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harper, Sam, Lynch, John, Burris, Scott, and Davey Smith, George (2007). Trends in the Black-White Life Expectancy Gap in the United States, 1983–2003. Journal of the American Medical Association, 297(11): 1224–1232.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harper, Sam, Rushani, Dinela, and Kaufman, Jay S (2012). Trends in the Black-White Life Expectancy Gap, 2003–2008. JAMA, 307(21): 2257–2259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hayward, Mark D., Miles, Toni P., Crimmins, Eileen M., and Yang, Yu (2000). The Significance of Socioeconomic Status in Explaining the Racial Gap in Chronic Health Conditions. American Sociological Review, 65(6): 910–930.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heckler, Margaret M. (1985). Report of the Secretary’s Task Force on Black and Minority Health. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Google Scholar
Hetzel, Alice M. (1997). U.S. Vital Statistics System Major Activities and Developments, 1950–1995. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics.Google Scholar
Heuveline, Patrick (1998). “Between One and Three Million”: Towards the Demographic Reconstruction of a Decade of Cambodian History (1970–1979). Population Studies, 52(1): 49–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hochschild, Adam (2005). Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Kelly M., Trawalter, Sophie, Axt, Jordan R., and Norman Oliver, M. (2016). Racial Bias in Pain Assessment and Treatment Recommendations, and False Beliefs about Biological Differences between Blacks and Whites. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(16): 4296–4301.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
House, James S., Kessler, Ronald C., and Regula Herzog, A. (1990). Age, Socioeconomic Status, and Health. The Milbank Quarterly, 68(3): 383–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
House, James S., Lepkowski, James M., Kinney, Ann M., Mero, Richard P., Kessler, Ronald C., and Regula Herzog, A. (1994). The Social stratification of Aging and Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 35(3): 213–234.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hummer, Robert A. (1996). Black-White Differences in Health and Mortality: A Review and Conceptual Model. The Sociological Quarterly, 37(1): 105–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hummer, Robert A., and Gutin, Iliya (2018). Racial/Ethnic and Nativity Disparities in the Health of Older U.S. Men and Women. In Hayward, Mark D. and Majmundar, Malay (Eds.), Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop, pp. 31–66. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Isaacs, Julia B. (2010). Economic Mobility of Black and White Families . Washington, DC: Pew Charitable Trusts. <http://www.economicmobility.org/assets/pdfs/EMP_BlackandWhite_ChapterVI.pdf> (accessed December 5, 2019).Google Scholar
Jackman, Mary R. (2002). Violence in Social Life. Annual Review of Sociology, 28(1): 387–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, Sharon A., Anderson, Roger T., Johnson, Norman J., and Sorlie, Paul D. (2000). The Relation of Residential Segregation to All-cause Mortality: A Study in Black and White. American Journal of Public Health, 90(4): 615–617.Google ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Rucker C. (2017). Health. Pathways Magazine. Special issue: 26–30.Google ScholarPubMed
Johnson, Akilah, and Buford, Talia. (2020). “Early Data Shows African Americans Have Contracted and Died of Coronavirus at an Alarming Rate.” ProPublica April 3. Propublica.org.Google Scholar
Jones, Jacqueline (1985). Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Katz, Josh, and Goodnough, Abby. (2017). The Opioid Crisis Is Getting Worse, Particularly for Black Americans. The New York Times. December 22.Google Scholar
Kaufman, Jay S., Cooper, Richard S., and McGee, Daniel L. (1997). Socioeconomic Status and Health in Blacks and Whites: The Problem of Residual Confounding and the Resiliency of Race. Epidemiology (Cambridge, Mass.), 8(6): 621–628.Google ScholarPubMed
Kawachi, Ichiro (1999). Social Capital and Community Effects on Population and Individual Health. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896: 120–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kawachi, Ichiro, Adler, Nancy E., and Dow, William H. (2010). Money, Schooling, and Health: Mechanisms and Causal Evidence. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 56–68.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Keith, Verna M., and Herring, Cedric (1991). Skin tone and Stratification in the Black Community. American Journal of Sociology, 97(3): 760–778.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O., and Verba, Sidney (1994). Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gilbert (2012). Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, Evely M., and Hauser, Philip M. (1973). Differential Mortality in the United States: A Study in Socioeconomic Epidemiology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klasen, Stephan, and Wink, Claudia (2003). “Missing women”: Revisiting the debate. Feminist Economics, 9(2-3): 263–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klinenberg, Eric (2002). Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kochanek, K. D., Maurer, J. D., and Rosenberg, H. M. (1994). Why Did Black Life Expectancy Decline from 1984 through 1989 in the United States? American Journal of Public Health, 84(6): 938–944.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kochanek, Kenneth D., Arias, Elizabeth, and Bastian, Brigham A. (2016). The Effect of changes in Selected Age-specific Causes of death on Non-Hispanic White Life Expectancy between 2000 and 2014. In NCHS Data Brief, No. 250. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.Google ScholarPubMed
Kolchin, Peter (1987). Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Krieger, Nancy, Chen, Jarvis T., Coull, Brent, Waterman, Pamela D., and Beckfield, Jason (2013). The Unique Impact of Abolition of Jim Crow Laws on Reducing Inequities in Infant Death Rates and Implications for Choice of Comparison Groups in Analyzing Societal Determinants of Health. American Journal of Public Health, 103(12): 2234–2244.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krieger, Nancy, Rehkopf, David H., Chen, Jarvis T., Waterman, Pamela D., Marcelli, Enrico, and Kennedy, Malinda (2008). The Fall and Rise of U.S. Inequities in Premature Mortality: 1960–2002. PLoS Medicine, 5(2): 227–241.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krivo, Lauren J., Peterson, Ruth D., and Kuhl, Danielle C. (2009). Segregation, Racial Structure, and Neighborhood Violent Crime. American Journal of Sociology, 114(6): 1765–1802.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lareau, Annette (2011). Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lemann, Nicholas (1991). The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How it Changed America. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Leonhardt, David, and Thompson, Stuart A. (2020). How Working Class Life is Killing Americans, in Charts. The New York Times. March 6.Google Scholar
Levine, Morgan E., and Crimmins, Eilleen M. (2014). Evidence of Accelerated Aging among African Americans and its Implications for Mortality. Social Science and Medicine, 118(October): 27–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Levine, Robert S., Foster, James E., Fullilove, Robert E., Fullilove, Mindy T., and Briggs, Nathaniel C. (2001). Black-White Inequalities in Mortality and Life Expectancy, 1933–1999: Implications for Healthy People 2010. Public Health Reports, 116: 474–483.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lewis, Tené T., Cogburn, Courtney D., and Williams, David R. (2015). Self-reported Experiences of Discrimination and Health: Scientific Advances, Ongoing Controversies, and Emerging Issues. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 11: 407–440.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lieberson, Stanley (1980). A Piece of the Pie: Blacks and White Immigrants since 1880. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Liese, Kylea L., Mogos, Mulubrhan, Abboud, Sarah, Decocker, Karen, Koch, Abigail R., and Geller, Stacie E. (2019). Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe Maternal Morbidity in the United States. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, 6(4): 790–798.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Link, Bruce G., and Phelan, Jo C. (1995). Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Disease. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 36: 80–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowery, Wesley (2016). They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement. London: Hachette UK.Google Scholar
Lundberg, Ulf (1999). Stress Responses in Low-status Jobs and their Relationship to Health Risks: Musculoskeletal Disorders. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896: 162–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacLeod, Jay (1987). Ain’t No Makin’It: Leveling Aspirations in a Low-income Neighborhood. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Manton, K. G., Patrick, C. H., and Johnson, K. W. (1987). Health Differentials between Blacks and Whites: Recent Trends in Mortality and Morbidity. The Milbank Quarterly, 65(Supplement 1): 129–199.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, M. G., Bosma, H., Hemingway, H., Brunner, E., and Stansfeld, S. (1997). Contribution of Job Control and Other Risk Factors to Social Variations in Coronary Heart Disease Incidence. Lancet (London, England), 350(9073): 235–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marmot, Michael (2001). Inequalities in Health. New England Journal of Medicine, 345(2): 134–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Massey, Douglas S. (2004). Segregation and Stratification: A Biosocial Perspective. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 1(1): 7–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Denton, Nancy A. (1993). American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the American Underclass. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Eggers, Mitchell L. (1990). The Ecology of Inequality: Minorities and the concentration of Poverty, 1970–1980. American Journal of Sociology, 95(5): 1153–1188.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mathews, T. J., and Driscoll, Anne K. (2017). Trends in Infant Mortality in the United States, 2005–2014. NCHS Data Brief, no 279. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.Google Scholar
Matthews, Karen A., Gallo, Linda C., and Taylor, Shelley E. (2010). Are Psychosocial Factors Mediators of Socioeconomic Status and Health Connections? Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 146–173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McEwen, Bruce S., and Gianaros, Peter J. (2010). Central Role of the Brain in Stress and Adaptation: Links to Socioeconomic Status, Health, and Disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186:190–222.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McNeill, William H. (1998). Plagues and Peoples. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Miniño, Arialdi M., Murphy, Sherry L., Xu, Jiaquan, and Kochanek, Kenneth D. (2011). Deaths: Final Data for 2008. In National Vital Statistics Reports. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.Google Scholar
Murphy, Sherry L., Xu, Jiaquan, and Kochanek, Kenneth D. (2012). Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2010. In National Vital Statistics Reports. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics.Google Scholar
Myrdal, Gunnar (1944). An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: Harper & Bros.Google Scholar
National Research Council (1989). A Common Destiny: Blacks and American Society. Washington, DC: The National Academy Press.Google Scholar
National Research Council (2014). The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Newell, Colin (1988). Methods and Models in Demography. New York: The Guilford Press.Google Scholar
O’Rand, Angela M., and Lynch, Scott M. (2018). Socioeconomic Status, Health, and Mortality in Aging Populations. In Hayward, Mark D. and Majmundar, Malay (Eds.), Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop, pp. 67–95. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Oliver, Melvin L., and Shapiro, Thomas M. (1997). Black Wealth / White Wealth: A New Perspective on Racial Inequality. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Oshinsky, David M. (1996). Worse than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Passel, Jeffrey S. (2004). Methodology and Assumptions for Population Estimates and Projections by Race and Generation, 1960–2030. Washington, DC: Urban Institute.Google Scholar
Pettit, Becky (2012). Invisible Men: Mass Incarceration and the Myth of Black Progress. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Phelan, Jo C., and Link, Bruce G. (2015). Is Racism a Fundamental Cause of Inequalities in Health? Annual Review of Sociology, 41(1): 311–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phelan, Jo C., Link, Bruce G., and Tehranifar, Parisa (2010). Social Conditions as Fundamental Causes of Health Inequalities: Theory, Evidence, and Policy Implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(Suppl): S28–S40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phillips, Patrick (2016). Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America. New York: WW Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Pollard, A. H., Farhat, Yusef, and Pollard, G. N. (1974). Demographic Techniques. New York: Pergamon Press.Google Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., and Elo, Irma T. (2006). Black mortality at Very Old Ages in Official U.S. Life Tables: A Skeptical Appraisal. Population and Development Review, 32(3): 557–565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., Elo, Irma T., Foster, Andrew, and Fu, Haishan (1998). Reconstructing the Size of the African American Population by Age and Sex, 1930–1990. Demography, 35(1): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., Elo, Irma T., Rosenwaike, Ira, and Hill, Mark (1996). African-American Mortality at Older Ages: Results of a Matching Study. Demography, 33(2): 193–209.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Preston, Samuel, and Haines, Michael R. (1984). New Estimates of Child Mortality in the United States at the Turn of the Century. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 79: 272–281.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, J. Gregory, West, Kirsten K., and Adlakha, Arjun (2002). Coverage of the Population in Census 2000: Results from Demographic Analysis. Population Research and Policy Review, 21(1-2): 19–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, Javier M., Arline, T. Geronimus, John Bound, and Danny Dorling (2015). Black Lives Matter: Differential Mortality and the Racial Composition of the U.S. Electorate, 1970–2004. Social Science and Medicine, 136-137: 193–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, Richard G. (1992). Living and Dying in the U.S.A.: Sociodemographic Determinants of Death among Blacks and Whites. Demography, 29(2): 287–303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rossen, Lauren M., and Schoendorf, Kenneth C. (2014). Trends in Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Infant Mortality Rates in the United States, 1989–2006. American Journal of Public Health, 104(8): 1549–1556.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ruggles, Steven, Sobek, Matthew, Alexander, Trent, Fitch, Catherine A., Ronald Goeken, Patricia Kelly Hall, Miriam King, and Chad Ronnander (2008). Integrated Public Use Microdata Series: Version 4.0 [Machine-readable database]. Minneapolis, MN: Minnesota Population Center [producer and distributor]. <http://usa.ipums.org/usa/> (accessed December 5, 2019).+(accessed+December+5,+2019).>Google Scholar
Sabin, Janice A., Nosek, Brian A., Greenwald, Anthony G., and Rivara, Frederick P. (2009). Physicians’ Implicit and Explicit Attitudes about Race by MD Race, Ethnicity, and Gender. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 20(3): 896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saez, Emmanuel (2016). Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (updated with 2015 preliminary estimates). <https://eml.berkeley.edu/∼saez/saez-UStopincomes-2015.pdf> (accessed December 5, 2019).Google Scholar
Sampson, Robert J. (2012). Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Satcher, David, Fryer, George E., Jessica McCann, Adewale Troutman, Steven H. Woolf, and George Rust (2005). What if We were Equal?: A Comparison of the Black-White Mortality Gap in 1960 and 2000. Health Affairs, 24(2): 459–464.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuman, Howard, Steeh, Charlotte, Bobo, Lawrence, and Krysan, Maria (1997). Racial Attitudes in America: Trends and Interpretations (Revised Edition). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Seeman, Teresa E., Crimmins, Eileen, Huang, Mei-Hua, Singer, Burton, Bucur, Alexander, Gruenewald, Tara, Berkman, Lisa F., and Reuben, David B. (2004). Cumulative Biological Risk and Socio-economic Differences in Mortality: MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging. Social Science and Medicine, 58(10): 1985–1997.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seeman, Teresa, Epel, Elissa, Gruenewald, Tara, Karlamangla, Arun, and McEwen, Bruce S. (2010). Socio-economic Differentials in Peripheral Biology: Cumulative Allostatic Load. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 223–239.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sen, Amartya (1990). More than 100 Million Women are Missing. New York Review of Books, (December 20): 61–65.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Thomas (2017). Wealth. Pathways Magazine. Special issue: 35–37.Google Scholar
Sigelman, Lee, and Welch, Susan (1991). Black Americans’ Views of Racial Inequality: The Dream Deferred. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Singer, Burton, and Ryff, Carol D. (1999). Hierarchies of Life Histories and Associated Health Risks. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896: 96–115.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Singh, Gopal K., and Yu, Stella M. (2019). Infant Mortality in the United States, 1915–2017: Large Social Inequalities Have Persisted For Over a Century. International Journal of MCH and AIDS, 8(1): 19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sternthal, Michelle J., Slopen, Natalie, and Williams, David R. (2011). Racial Disparities in Health: How Much Does Stress Really Matter? Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 8(1): 95–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tavernise, Sabrina (2016). Black Americans See Gains in Life Expectancy. The New York Times. May 8.Google Scholar
Taylor, Alan (2001). American Colonies: The Settling of North America. London & New York: Viking Penguin.Google Scholar
Taylor, Keeanga-Yamahtta (2016). From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Taylor, Paul, Kochhar, Rakesh, Fry, Richard, Velasco, Gabriel, and Motel, Seth (2011). Wealth Gaps Rise to Record Highs between Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center Social and Demographic Trends.Google Scholar
The Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921 (2001). Tulsa Race Riot: A Report by the Oklahoma Commission to Study the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.Google Scholar
Thebault, Reis, Tran, Andrew Ba, and Williams, Vanessa (2020). The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rate. The Washington Post. April 7.Google Scholar
Thoits, Peggy A. (2010). Stress and Health: Major Findings and Policy Implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(1_suppl): S41–S53.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tolnay, Stewart E. (1999). The Bottom Rung: African American Family Life on Southern Farms. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E. (2003). The African American “Great Migration” and Beyond. Annual Review of Sociology, 29(1): 209–232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Troesken, Werner (2004). Water, Race, and Disease. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trotter, Joe William (1985). Black Milwaukee: The Making of an Industrial Proletariat, 1915–1945. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Census Bureau (2007). Annual Estimates of the Black or African American Alone or in Combination Population by Sex and Age for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2007 (NC-EST2007-04-BAC). Washington, DC: Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau.Google Scholar
Umberson, Debra, Olson, Julie Skalamera, Crosnoe, Robert, Liu, Hui, Pudrovska, Tetyana, and Donnelly, Rachel (2017). Death of Family Members as an Overlooked Source of Racial Disadvantage in the United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(5): 915–920.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
United Nations, The (1990–2015). Human Development Reports. <http://hdr.undp.org/en/global-reports>(accessed December 5, 2019).(accessed+December+5,+2019).>Google Scholar
Van Ryn, Michelle, Burgess, Diana J., Dovidio, John F., Phelan, Sean M., Saha, Somnath, Malat, Jennifer, Griffin, Joan M, Fu, Steven S., and Perry, Sylvia (2011). The Impact of Racism on Clinician Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race 8(1): 199–218.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Villarosa, Linda (2018). Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies are in a Life-or-Death Crisis.” The New York Times. April 11.Google Scholar
Waite, Linda J. (2018). Social Well-being and Health in the Older Population: Moving Beyond Social Relationships. In Hayward, Mark D. and Majmundar, Malay (Eds.), Future Directions for the Demography of Aging: Proceedings of a Workshop, pp. 99–130. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce (2006). Punishment and Inequality in America. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Wilkerson, Isabel (2010). The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard G. (1996). Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard G, and Marmot, Michael (2003). Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts. Geneva: World Health Organization.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, Richard G. (1999). Health, Hierarchy, and Social Anxiety. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 896: 48–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, David R., and Cooper, Lisa A. (2019). Reducing Racial Inequities in Health: Using What We Already Know to Take Action. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(4): 606.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, David R., and Collins, Chiquita (2001). Racial Residential Segregation: A Fundamental Cause of Racial Disparities in Health. Public Health Reports, 116(5): 404–416.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, David R., and Mohammed, Selina A. (2009). Discrimination and Racial Disparities in Health: Evidence and Needed Research. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 32(1): 20–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, David R., Mohammed, Selina A., Leavell, Jacinta, and Collins, Chiquita (2010). Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Health: Complexities, Ongoing Challenges, and Research Opportunities. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1186: 69–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, William Julius (1987). The Truly Disadvantaged: The Inner City, the Underclass, and Public Policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius (1996). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wolfe, Barbara, Evans, William, and Seeman, Teresa E. (2012). The Biological Consequences of Socioeconomic Inequalities. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Wolfers, Justin, Leonhardt, David, and Quealy, Kevin (2015). 1.5 Million Missing Black Men. The New York Times. April 20.Google Scholar
Woodruff, Nan Elizabeth (2003). American Congo. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
World Bank, The (2010). Global Monitoring Report 2010: The MDGs after the Crisis. Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar
David, Zucchino (2020). Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy. New York: Grove Atlantic.Google Scholar