Water, Race, and Disease

Front Cover
MIT Press, 2004 - History - 251 pages

Why, at the peak of the Jim Crow era early in the twentieth century, did life expectancy for African Americans rise dramatically? And why, when public officials were denying African Americans access to many other public services, did public water and sewer service for African Americans improve and expand? Using the qualitative and quantitative tools of demography, economics, geography, history, law, and medicine, Werner Troesken shows that the answers to these questions are closely connected. Arguing that in this case, racism led public officials not to deny services but to improve them -- the only way to "protect" white neighborhoods against waste from black neighborhoods was to install water and sewer systems in both -- Troesken shows that when cities and towns had working water and sewer systems, typhoid and other waterborne diseases were virtually eradicated. This contributed to the great improvements in life expectancy (both in absolute terms and relative to whites) among urban blacks between 1900 and 1940. Citing recent demographic and medical research findings that early exposure to typhoid increases the probability of heart problems later in life, Troesken argues that building water and sewer systems not only reduced waterborne disease rates, it also improved overall health and reduced mortality from other diseases.Troesken draws on many independent sources of evidence, including data from the Negro Mortality Project, econometric analysis of waterborne disease rates in blacks and whites, analysis of case law on discrimination in the provision of municipal services, and maps showing the location of black and white households. He argues that all evidence points to one conclusion: that there was much less discrimination in the provision of public water and sewer systems than would seem likely in the era of Jim Crow.

 

Contents

Introduction
1
Waterborne Diseases
17
When Where and to What Effect?
35
Stories from Memphis
65
Shaw Mississippi
93
Who Benefitted and
125
Verification
137
Further Tests
179
Conclusions
201
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

access to public African African-American American cities areas benefits black and white black households black neighborhoods black rates black to white black typhoid rates Bureau of Census chapter chlorination coefficient connected to public diarrhea difference discrimination disease spillovers dummies Yes Yes econometric Economic effects estimates evidence Figure History improvements integrated cities IPUMS Jacksonville malaria malaria rates Memphis mortality rates Negro one-tailed test population connected privies public health public sewers public water lines race rates for blacks reduced regressions reported Savannah segregated cities sewer lines sewer mains sewer services sewer systems Shaw Source South Statistics of Cities suggests Terry tion towns typhoid death rates typhoid fever U.S. Bureau U.S. Department urban water and sewer water filter water filtration water mains water purification water quality waterborne disease rates white disease white households white rates white typhoid death white typhoid rates white waterborne disease yellow fever Yes Yes Yes

References to this book

About the author (2004)

Werner Troesken is Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and Faculty Research Associate at NBER. He is the author of Water, Race, and Disease (MIT Press, 2004).

Bibliographic information

TitleWater, Race, and Disease
NBER series on long-term factors in economic development
AuthorWerner Troesken
Editionillustrated
PublisherMIT Press, 2004
ISBN0262201488, 9780262201483
Length251 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

History / African American & Black
History / General
Medical / Health Care Delivery
Medical / Health Policy
Medical / Infectious Diseases
Science / General
Social Science / Black Studies (Global)
Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies
  
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