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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - III. Population and Migration - 7. Population - 5. Controlling the Death Rate - 6. The Case for Controlling the Negro Birth Rate
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Chapter 7. Population 175
diseases, venereal diseases, induced abortion and organic deficiencies. All
these things may be reduced by means available to modern science or by
more general diffusion of a few simple items of information. The same
causes keep the Negro stillbirth rate high, and so lower the birth rate. In
1940, the reported Negro stillbirth rate was 58.1 per i,000 live births as
compared to 27.6 for whites.^® If the unreported stillbirths and spontaneous
abortions were added to this, the discrepancy would, no doubt, be much
greater.
All these types of death rates have apparently been falling recently, for
Negroes as well as for whites. It is useless to cite statistics because the
reporting of deaths has progressively improved and, therefore, no adequate
comparison can be made between two periods.® But the direct and indirect
evidence available shows a decline in the death rates.*^® The greatest prog-
ress seems to be in reducing deaths among Negroes due to tuberculosis,
syphilis, diphtheria, whooping cough, diarrhea, and enteritis. But the
Negro rates are still much higher than the white rates, and there is much
that can be done for both Negroes and whites.
In Chapter 15, Section 4, we shall comment somewhat more in detail
both upon what is being done in the way of public policy to prevent and cure
disease and upon the actual discrimination against the Negroes which
up to now has rendered the public measures less effective for them. We
can conclude from known facts and the stated value premises that what is
needed in the way of special attention to Negroes is constant vigilance
against popular and official prejudice in the application of a general medical
and health program. In view of the racial attitudes prevalent in the South,
and in view of the generally greater needs and smaller resources of the
South, it is almost necessary that national organizations, and specifically the
federal government, take a firm lead in this work. A national policy, work-
ing toward an improvement of health and a decline in disease, will increase
the happiness and efficiency, not only of those directly served, but also of
the general population. It will also, if carried out with intelligence and
fairness, be a major example of the democratic process.
6. The Case for Controlling the Negro Birth Rate
Aside from any desire on the part of white people to check the growth
of the Negro population, there are in the South a great number of Negroes
—as of whites—who are so destitute that from a general social point of view
it would be highly desirable that they did not procreate. The same is true,
though to a much lesser degree, about the North. Many of these people are
* It is not reasonable to compare Negro death rates even in those Northern states that
have had adequate registration for a long while, since in these states the Negro population
has changed drastically due to migration from the South. For the available data, however,
see Section 2 of this chapter.
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