Federal Government and African‐American Communities Identifying and Defining African-American Health Disparities Through Intervention: The National Negro Health Week Movement and Office of Negro Health Work From 1915-­‐1951.

Abstract

Despite the continued effort to mitigate health disparities in the US, little historical research has been done analyzing the historical context surrounding past federal health disparity interventions. In the early 20th century, the federal government addressed the evidence-based existence of racial health disparities by forming the Office of Negro Health Work within the United States Public Health Service. This scholarly project contextualizes the attitudes about race, health, and health disparities among the communities that surrounded the formation and dissolution of this office and its affiliated public health movement, the National Negro Health Week. This study analyzes the public health, medical and African American perspectives on race and health from the early to mid 20th century. Sources included the National Negro Health News, medical and sociological literature, reports from the United States Public Health Services, and the archives of the National Negro Health Week located in the Tuskegee, AL. The rise and fall of the Office of Negro Health Work reflected the impact that changing attitudes towards race, within and outside of the African American community, the shifting burden of disease and its effect on public health policy, and how we as a society define race and illness when approaching health disparity interventions.