Infectious Fear: Politics, Disease, and the Health Effects of Segregation

Contents

contents Acknowledgments xi introduction Disease Histories and Race Histories 1 1 Toward a Historical Epidemiology of African American Tuberculosis 19 2 The Rise of the City and the Decline of the Negro: The Historical Idea of Black Tuberculosis and the Politics of Color and Class 41 3 Urban Underdevelopment, Politics, and the Landscape of Health 67 4 Establishing Boundaries: Politics, Science, and Stigma in the Early Antituberculosis Movement 87 5 Locating African Americans and Finding the ‘‘Lung Block’’ 107 6 The Web of Surveillance and the Emerging Politics of Public Health in Baltimore 139 7 The Road to Henryton and the Ends of Progressivism 169 conclusion Unequal Burdens: Public Health at the Intersection of Segregation and Housing Politics 201 Notes 223 Index 299 This page intentionally left blank illustrations, figures, and tables Illustrations Ward map of Baltimore City, 1906 75 Map of Baltimore’s lung block, 1914 77 Interior of a Baltimore alley house, ca. 1916 78 ‘‘An Afternoon Lecture to a Negro Sunday School in Washington,’’ 1910 101 Map of New York City’s lung block, ca. 1903 110 Spot map of tuberculosis deaths in Baltimore, 1891–1900 117 Section of the Baltimore City Health Department’s tuberculosis mortality spot map, 1902 119 ‘‘Map Showing Location of Saloons,’’ 1908 133 A visiting nurse and her black patient in the Druid Hill District, 1915 145 ‘‘Waiting Room 602 South Bond Street,’’ 1912 146 ‘‘Where Fighting Mag Lived,’’ 1905 151 ‘‘Four Generations of Consumptives,’’ 1909 152 ‘‘Finding the Cases,’’ 1915 173 ‘‘Patient in Last Stages,’’ ca. 1910 175 ‘‘Advanced Case of Tuberculosis,’’ ca. 1910 182 A Ward at Henryton State Sanatorium for Colored Consumptives, ca. 1924 192 ‘‘In the Lung Block—No. 9,’’ 1925 210 ‘‘Razing ‘Lung Block’ for Construction of Public Park,’’ 1929 211 Black Marylanders wait for chest X-rays, 1940s 215 ‘‘Disease and Low Rent Go Together,’’ 1939 217 ‘‘Rates by Census Tracts of 746 Newly Reported Cases of Tuberculosis,’’ 1965 220 Figures 1-1. Tuberculosis mortality (all forms) per 100,000 population, United States, by color and age, 1920 24 1-2. Tuberculosis mortality (all forms) per 100,000 population, United States, by color and age, 1931 25 1-3. Tuberculosis mortality (all forms) per 100,000 population, United States, by color and age, 1940 26 1-4. Tuberculosis mortality (all forms) per 100,000 population, southern cities, 1871–1900 27 1-5. Tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 population, by color, select cities, 1900 28 1-6. Pulmonary tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 population, Baltimore, 1903–40 29 1-7. Age distribution of all mortality, Baltimore, 1903 30 1-8. Average pulmonary tuberculosis mortality (including miliary tuberculosis) per 100,000 population, southern cities, 1906–10 31 1-9. Pulmonary tuberculosis mortality (including miliary tuberculosis) per 100,000 population, southern cities, 1917 32 1-10. Pulmonary tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 population, select cities, 1935 36 1-11. Pulmonary tuberculosis mortality per 100,000 population, United States, by color and sex, 1935–60 39 3-1. Typhoid fever mortality per 100,000 population, Baltimore, by color, 1903–23 69 3-2. Whooping cough mortality per 100,000 population, Baltimore, by color, 1903–23 70 3-3. Diarrhea and enteritis mortality per 100,000 population for children under age two, Baltimore, by color, 1903–23 71 3-4. Broncho- and lobar pneumonia mortality per 100,000 population, Baltimore, by race, 1903–23 72 Tables i-1. Population of Afro-Baltimoreans, 1900–1940 11 1-1. Pulmonary Tuberculosis Mortality per 100,000 Population, Baltimore, Five-Year Periods, 1906–40 28 1-2. Tuberculosis Mortality (All Forms) per 100,000 Population, Southern States, by Color, 1917–26 34 3-1. Tuberculosis Mortality per 100,000 Population, Baltimore, by Color and Ward, 1906 74 c-1. Tuberculosis Mortality (All Forms), Baltimore, by Color, 1940–53 204 ...