Washington, DC, has the nation's largest racial life expectancy gap, and it has experienced many of the nation's worst epidemics, including maternal and infant mortality, homicide, heroin overdoses, and HIV/AIDS. These epidemics have disproportionately affected African Americans. Why and how does racial health inequality exist and persist? Starting from the city's founding in the late 1700s and drawing on a range of sources-including archival material, life history interviews, and census, vital statistics, and disease surveillance data-this book illustrates how the physical, social, and policy design of the city contributes to the production and reproduction of disproportionate Black death.
