from 1891 to 1905,
white, 18.03 per 1,000, Negro, 32.76. Baltimore, Md., Charleston,
S.C., Memphis, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., show a similar decrease,
except that the white and Negro populations of Baltimore show an
increase in the third period, 1891 to 1905, and the rate of the Negro
population of Charleston increased in the second period, 1886 to 1890.

We see, then, that while the death-rate of Negroes in Southern cities
has been considerably in excess of that of the whites, there has been
at the same time a similar tendency toward improvement.

And where there is unprejudiced effort the death-rate among Negroes is
affected favorably by improved living conditions. The chief
health-officer of Richmond, Va., Dr. E.C. Levy, has sounded a note
which is not mere prophecy.[22] He said, in 1906, "There is no doubt
whatsoever but that the introduction of better sanitation among the
colored people would have great influence on their high death-rate,
but whether, after all, it can be brought down as low as the white
rate, is a matter which can not be foretold." Again, in 1907, he says,

We must clearly face the issue that the first fruits of improved
sanitation in Richmond will most probably be seen in a lowering
of the death-rate among the colored people, as conditions among
them are so much worse at present, but this in turn will
gradually react on the white race.

And, in 1908, this significant paragraph occurs in his report:

The white death-rate in Richmond during 1908 was 17.48 per 1000;
the colored rate was 29.21 per 1000. Although the colored rate
was thus 67 per cent higher than the white rate, the decrease in
the colored rate from 1907 was greater than the decrease in the
white rate, the 1907 rates being 18.11 for whites and 32.99 for
Negroes.

Out of a total decrease of 166 in the number of deaths in 1908
compared with 1907, the white decrease was 27, while the colored
decrease was 139. From the time that I entered office I have
predicted that improved sanitation would benefit the Colored
race more quickly than the white, and the figures above given
justify this conclusion.

The statement of this health officer points to experience rather than
to prejudiced notions about the physical weaknesses of Negroes.

From both the statistician and the sanitarian, therefore, comes the
word that while the health of Negroes in cities is worse than that