Why and how does racial health inequality persist and get reproduced? Throughout its history, Washington D.C., the capital of the United States, has had many of the nation’s worst epidemics, including maternal and infant mortality, homicide, heroin overdoses, and HIV/AIDS. And these epidemics have disproportionately affected African Americans. Starting from the city’s founding in the late 1700s until the present, and drawing from multiple sources, including archival and spatial material, Census, vital statistics and disease surveillance data, and life history and key informant interviews, this book illustrates how the city’s physical, social and policy design contributed to the production and reproduction of disproportionate death among African Americans.
