TABLE NUMBER XXVI
Colored Bodies Received and Disposed of in Morgue, First Six Months During 1915 as Compared with First Six Months During 1917.
| 1915 | 1917 | |
|---|---|---|
| Identified and Claimed | 13 | 32 |
| Identified and Cremated | 5 | 13 |
| Unknown and Cremated | 1 | 2 |
| 19 | 47 |
The figures obtained from the Coroner’s Office also indicate an abnormal increase in the number of colored bodies received and disposed of by the County Morgue. There were more than twice as many morgue cases within the first six months of 1917 as during the same period of 1915. That the majority of these bodies were claimed and not disposed of at public expense, is doubtless due to the high wages paid this year. High wages at least provide for burials, which are considered of paramount importance by the Negroes, because of their primitive superstition, and abhorrence of having their bodies turned over for the purpose of dissection.
The preceding analysis indicates that the conservation of the health of the Negro in Pittsburgh is a very complex problem, and is inter-related with his social, moral, industrial, housing and racial situation. The Negro is affected by all the elements which render difficult the preservation of health among whites but in a greater degree. Many of the factors which work continuously to undermine his health are to a large extent eliminated among whites; and on the other hand, much of the effective work done by whites to counteract these bad influences is entirely lacking among Negroes.
“The Triad of ‘baby-killers’—poverty, ignorance and neglect”—says Dr. Sobel, of the New York Health Department, “works havoc among Negro children to a greater extent even than among the whites.”
“The well known relationship between family income and infant mortality exists among Negroes as among the whites. The crude death rate is exceedingly high in all Negro districts. There are, however, well-defined differences in their respective rates, resulting, we think, from economic conditions. In the districts where the family income is highest, the death rate is lowest, confirming the opinion that if we can improve the social and economic condition of the Negro, an appreciable reduction in their death rate will have been secured.” (August, 1917 Bulletin of the Department of Health, New York City, pages 87 and 88.)
While we may admit the claim often advanced that even under the same conditions disease and infant mortality among Negroes would ordinarily be higher than that of the whites, because, due to the climatic and environmental maladjustments, his racial power of resistance is not as great as that of the white; the Negro is still confronted with many forces which handicap and work against him, but which are almost non-existent among the whites.
From our discussion of employment, housing and opportunities for advancement in Pittsburgh, the reader will realize the difficulties and hardships which the Negro is compelled to face in this city. Only a very few of the Negro migrants earn more than $3.60 a day for twelve hours work. Half of the families here live in one room dwellings. Practically all of the mothers are doing some work outside the home. The Negroes have as yet no organization for mutual co-operation. They live separate and apart from each other. In many cases for instance, it was found in our survey, that women living next door to each other for months would hardly know one another, although often they would both come from the same state and even from the same city. The Negroes are more exposed and liable to disease because their social, industrial, educational and moral development is more handicapped than that of the white man. The Negro is apparently as yet not free even in the North; he is still held captive in economic bondage, and is deterred from rising above the lowest servant class. He is, judging from the present situation, limited to common labor at thirty cents an hour during prosperous times.
The conservation of health, is as we have seen, no longer the problem of the individual. It is therefore time that we awaken to the realization that sickness and a high mortality rate among Negroes is no longer the problem of the Negro alone. Eventually all of us will have to pay the price for our indifference, both in money and in lives. The taxpayer ultimately pays for hospitals and morgues, as well as for jails and prisons. Our children are not at all immune from the sources of disease which are ravaging the colored children. This problem is our problem; we must face it squarely, and see whether any improvement in this situation is possible.