Health Is a Human Right: Race and Place in America

Shades of San Francisco, San Francisco Public Library - Class photograph, Emerson Elementary School, ca. 1947, reflecting San Francisco’s racial and ethnic diversity.

University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries - Visionary sociologist and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) in his Atlanta University office, 1909 - DuBois was among the first to note that the health disparities of American blacks stemmed from social conditions and not from inherent racial traits. He provided empirical evidence that linked the legacy of slavery and the inherent racism of American society to the poor health of blacks.

National Archives and Records Administration - 1923 cartoon, “Southern Farmer’s Burden,” depicting a white farmer carrying a cotton bale with a sick black worker being stung by a giant mosquito - In response to high rates of malaria among rural blacks, the Georgia State Board of Health appealed to white farmers to provide adequate housing to their African American workforce. Blacks who labored on southern cotton plantations typically lived in poor quality housing near swampy land – a perfect breeding ground for malaria-carrying mosquitos.

Atlanta History Center - An example of sub-standard African American housing in Atlanta, GA, 1920 - The 13th Annual Conference for the Study of Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University in 1908, includes an indictment of alley housing characterized by over-crowding, and poor construction and sanitation.

Artwork by Emory Douglas - Illustration, “Hypertension Kills”, showing black man holding poster that says, “I’m hungry, I’m unemployed, I’m black,” from The Black Panther newspaper, July, 1975 - These are some of the social factors that can contribute to hypertension. The prevalence of high blood pressure is more common among blacks compared with whites and Mexican Americans.

Tuskegee University Archives - U.S. TB death rates chart, 1940, documenting the disparities between black and white males and females relative to death rates from tuberculosis - Many factors can be attributed to these disparities, including poverty and lack of access to health care and treatment.

Harper’s Weekly magazine - Illustration, June, 1900, with caption, “Chinamen confined in their quarters cooking their meals” - A case of bubonic plague contracted by a Chinese man in San Francisco in 1900 resulted in a Board of Health order of a year-long quarantine of Chinatown. Critics, both Chinese and white, questioned the Board’s strategy of dividing the contaminated from the uncontaminated along racial lines, with no scientific evidence to support these policies.

National Library of Medicine; photograph by P.E. Brooks - U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) and Immigration Service officers interrogating a Chinese immigrant, Angel Island, California, 1923 - Asian immigrants who arrived the first part of the 20th century received special scrutiny because they were considered disease carriers. The Asian community mounted many legal challenges to these practices.

San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library - A doctor coaxing a child with his mother at a Chinatown Well Baby Clinic, San Francisco, 1934 - In 1921, Congress passed the Maternity and Infancy Act to provide instruction in maternity and infant care. Through this funding, “Well Baby Clinics” were held across the country, typically segregated by ethnicity or race.

University of Washington Libraries; photograph by Norman Edson - Salishan man William We-ah-lup smoking salmon, Tulalip Indian Reservation, Washington, 1906 - With the implementation of commodity government food assistance programs, Native Americans lost time-honored cultural practices and food traditions. Erosion of healthy eating and subsequent poor health resulted. However, through persistent protest and public awareness, tribes such as those of the Pacific Northwest, fought for protection of fishing rights and today teach traditional fishing, food preparation, and environmental stewardship to Indian youth.