Athens Death Project

From the website: "Viewing the segregated South from its morgue, the Athens Death Project measures racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes and life expectancy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Legal prohibitions and social inequalities—demanding physical labor, unsanitary working conditions, unequal access to health care, and redlined residential areas—always tell at the morgue. Using Athens-Clarke County death certificates, mortuary records, and cemetery data, this project critically interrogates the lasting effects of racial inequality for Black and white residents. In Athens, Georgia, we have never lived equally and, in turn, we did not and still do die equally. True social justice will be achieved when there is no longer a significant statistical advantage to belonging to one group or another when it comes to longevity and health outcomes. The first step in this process is to recognize and reckon with the historical record and confront the lasting effects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and urban renewal."

Dublin Core

Title

Athens Death Project

Date

2021-03-06

Language

Audience Education Level

Spatial Coverage

Georgia [n-us-ga]

Abstract

From the website: "Viewing the segregated South from its morgue, the Athens Death Project measures racial and socioeconomic disparities in health outcomes and life expectancy during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Legal prohibitions and social inequalities—demanding physical labor, unsanitary working conditions, unequal access to health care, and redlined residential areas—always tell at the morgue. Using Athens-Clarke County death certificates, mortuary records, and cemetery data, this project critically interrogates the lasting effects of racial inequality for Black and white residents. In Athens, Georgia, we have never lived equally and, in turn, we did not and still do die equally. True social justice will be achieved when there is no longer a significant statistical advantage to belonging to one group or another when it comes to longevity and health outcomes. The first step in this process is to recognize and reckon with the historical record and confront the lasting effects of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and urban renewal."

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