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Negro league, any of the associations of African American baseball teams active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s, when Black players were at last contracted to play major and minor league baseball. The color line, also known as the color barrier, in American baseball excluded players of black African descent from Major League Baseball and its affiliated Minor Leagues until 1947

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Table of Contents

Negro league, any of the associations of African American baseball teams active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s, when Black players were at last contracted to play major and minor league baseball. The principal Negro leagues were the Negro National League (1920-31, 1933-48), the Eastern Colored League (1923-28), and the Negro American League (1937-60). A "gentleman's agreement" among the leaders of what was then called "Organized Baseball" (the major and minor leagues) erected a colour bar against Black players from the last years of the 19th century until 1946, although these leaders rarely admitted its existence.

Early Negro leagues

There were two attempts to establish leagues for Black teams in the early years of the 20th century. The first was in 1906 when the International League of Independent Base Ball Clubs was formed in the Philadelphia area. It had two white teams and four Black. The championship game pitted two Black teams against each other and attracted 10,000 fans to the stadium of the Philadelphia (now Oakland) Athletics. (This was the first time Black clubs performed in a major league park, though later most of the top Black clubs played in stadiums of major league or top minor league teams.) The league folded after its first season.

Four years later there was an attempt to start a Black major league with teams in Chicago; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Mobile, Alabama; St. Louis, Missouri; Columbus, Ohio; Kansas City, Missouri; and Kansas City, Kansas. The league died aborning without sanctioning a game.

The first viable Black league was formed in 1920 under the leadership of Rube Foster, manager of the Chicago American Giants. Foster had been Negro baseball's best pitcher in the early years of the 20th century and then its best-known manager and promoter. His barnstorming American Giants were known all over the country through their winter tours to California and Florida and traveled big-league style in private railroad cars.

Foster was a visionary who dreamed that the champion of his Black major league would play the best of the white league clubs in an interracial world series. His original plan called for a Black major league in the Midwest with teams in Chicago; Indianapolis, Indiana; Detroit, Michigan; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. It also called for another league in the East with clubs in New York City; Philadelphia; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Cleveland, Ohio. Only one eastern owner showed up for the organizational meeting in Kansas City in February 1920, so the eastern league did not materialize.

Nevertheless, the Negro National League (NNL) was established during the two-day meeting. Its teams were Foster's Chicago American Giants, the Indianapolis ABCs, Chicago Giants, Kansas City (Missouri) Monarchs, Detroit Stars, St. Louis Giants, Dayton (Ohio) Marcos, and the Cuban Stars, who had no home city. A few weeks later the Negro Southern League was organized with clubs in the large cities of the South; however, it was regarded as a minor circuit during its on-again, off-again life over the next 30 years.

In December 1923 another Black major league with six teams was established in eastern cities. Officially named the Mutual Association of Eastern Colored Baseball Clubs, it was known more familiarly as the Eastern Colored League (ECL). Members were the Brooklyn (New York) Royal Giants, Bacharach Giants of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Baltimore Black Sox, Hilldale Club of Philadelphia, and the Cuban Stars (no relation to the Cuban Stars of the NNL) and Lincoln Giants of New York City.

All these early leagues were financially shaky. They also had difficulty making up a schedule because few of the clubs owned ballparks or had contracts giving them exclusive use. Many were tenants of teams in the major and minor leagues and were obligated to use the parks when the owners were playing out of town and to vacate them when their hosts returned.

Another debilitating factor was that sometimes a league team would refuse to play a scheduled game if a nonleague opponent promised a bigger payday. Umpiring of league games was sometimes erratic because umpires were hired by the home team. Another handicap was the wide disparity in the quality of the teams; two or three clubs would dominate and earn far more money than their weaker brethren.

From 1924 through 1927, the NNL and ECL champions met in a Negro World Series. The NNL's Chicago American Giants won two championships and the Kansas City Monarchs won one, as did the Hilldale Club, representing the ECL. The ECL succumbed to financial weakness in the spring of 1928. The NNL, bereft of the management acumen and foresight of Foster, who was hospitalized for mental illness in 1926, stumbled on until 1931 before disbanding as the Great Depression deepened and left most fans with empty pockets. Two of its solvent franchises, Chicago and Indianapolis, joined the Negro Southern League for 1932. That year another Black circuit, called the East-West League, was started for eastern teams by Cumberland W. Posey, veteran manager of the Homestead Grays, a ball club based in Pittsburgh. The new league barely made it off the ground. By early June its Detroit team had dropped out, the schedule was curtailed, and salaries were slashed. The league did not last the summer.

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Negro league | Overview, History, Players, & Facts

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Negro league, any of the associations of African American baseball teams active largely between 1920 and the late 1940s, when Black players were at last contracted to play major and minor league baseball. The principal Negro leagues were the Negro National League (1920-31, 1933-48), the Eastern Colored League (1923-28), and the Negro American League (1937-60).

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Playing numbers is like going to the gas station and playing the lotto

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Racism is not simply the result of private prejudices held by individuals, but is also produced and reproduced by laws, rules, and practices, sanctioned and even implemented by various levels of government, and embedded in the economic system as well as in cultural and societal norms. The built-in systems that undermine life opportunities and outcomes by racial category, with a focus on challenges to Black Americans

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Abstract

There are clear connections between education achieved and health over the course of a lifetime, with higher education achievement being associated with better health. However, the association between education and mortality have differed by race, with minoritized populations reaping fewer benefits from education attained. This paper aims to understand the moderating effect of structural racism (measured at the state level) on the association between education and all-cause early mortality for Black and White participants. We utilize a nationally representative longitudinal sample of youth (NLSY97), and estimates of structural racism for each state through measures of political participation, employment and job status, education attainment ratios, and judicial treatment. Random effects models were then utilized to compare associations between Black and White participants, and assess the association of education on early mortality. Results indicate significant, yet nuanced findings in each of the models assessed suggesting that Black and White participants experienced diminished returns of education on the probability of early mortality. Findings support previous research suggesting that structural racism is costing all citizens, but is especially harmful for minoritized populations.

Keywords: Structural racism, Education, Health, Early mortality

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the moderating effect of structural racism assessed at the state level on the association between education and all-cause mortality in a representative sample of young adults. Shields et al. (2017) suggest that premature mortality (death between the ages of 25 and 64) has decreased over the past 40 years, but the rate of premature mortality remains higher for Black individuals and other ethnic minorities compared to White individuals in the US. These rates also vary by states in the US ( Montez et al., 2019). One factor that may explain the differences by race and variations across the states is through variations in structural racism at the state level. There is wide support for the association between premature mortality and years of education ( Bijwaard, Myrskyla, Tyneluis & Rasmussen, 2017; Chadeau-Hyam et al., 2020; Davies, Dickson, Smith, van den Berg, & Windmeijer, 2018; Laine et al., 2020; Liu, Chen, et al., 2019; Leive & Ruhm, 2021; Montez et al., 2019). More highly educated adults have lower premature mortality rates than those who are less educated. The gap between lower education and more education has been growing since the mid 1980's ( Montez et al., 2019).

1. Structural racism

Although there is ample evidence for the association between education and premature mortality, the literature is less clear about differences among ethnic/racial groups, and what factors might create those differences. One factor that may create those differences is racism. O'Brien et al. (2020) and Bailey, Feldman and Basset (2021) suggest a broader call for considering how racism impacts population health. Several authors make distinctions among various forms of racism that are discussed in the literature. There are three levels often discussed: structural or institutional racism, cultural racism and individual-level discrimination ( Bailey et al., 2021; O'Brien et al., 2020; Williams et al., 2019). Neblett (2019) defines these different levels. He defines individual racism/individual-level discrimination as beliefs in the superiority of one's race characterized by enactments between individuals that maintain power differentials. Neblett (2019) defines cultural racism as an intergenerational world view with beliefs in the superiority of one group over another that is ingrained in institutions, belief systems and everyday actions. Although there is no official definition of structural racism, all definitions make it clear that "racism is not simply the result of private prejudices held by individuals, but is also produced and reproduced by laws, rules, and practices sanctioned and even implemented by various levels of government and embedded in the economic system as well as in cultural and societal norms." ( Bailey et al., 2021, p. 768). Even more problematic is that structural racism can persist in governmental and institutional policies in the absence of actors who are explicitly racist ( Williams et al., 2019). Williams et al. (2019) and others (i.e. Gravlee, 2020; Montez et al., 2019; Neblett, 2019) suggest that persistent racial inequities in health need to be understood in the context of stable racialized social structures that determine risk, opportunities and resources that drive health.

2. Disparities in early mortality by education level

Even with these calls to understand how racism may shape racial inequities in health, many researchers assume that the education gradient for health and mortality is similar for all groups of people and thus, few explore ethnic/racial group differences with some exceptions. Assari (2018) and colleagues ( Assari & Bazargan, 2019; Assari et al., 2017; Assari & Lankarani, 2018) have developed the Minority Diminishing Returns Theory. In this theory, it is proposed that individuals from minoritized populations reap less health benefits from socioeconomic factors (i.e. education) than do their White counterparts.

Zang and Kim (2021) demonstrated that those with a college degree have lower mortality rates in young adulthood, however, this education gradient varied by race/ethnicity. Thus, not everyone benefited equally from higher education. The Black/White gap in life expectancy is actually greater at higher levels of education ( Gaydosh et al., 2018). Gaydosh and colleagues (2018) demonstrated that a college degree provided a protective advantage against depressive symptoms in all individuals, but that it only provided a protective advantage against metabolic syndrome for White individuals. Black participants in the ADD-Health dataset with a college degree were more likely to have metabolic syndrome than there less educated counterparts, and White individuals who had a college degree. Gaydosh, Schorpp, Chen, Miller, and Harris (2017) discuss these findings as "skin deep resilience" suggesting that upward mobility for Black Americans may come at a cost. Williams et al. (2019) in review ing the literature on health disparities suggested that at every level of education and income, Blacks have a lower life expectancy at age 25 than Whites, and Latinx. Blacks with a college degree or more have a lower life expectancy than White or Latinx who graduated from high school.

By combining Assari's (2018) Minority Diminishing Returns Theory and the notion that structural racism may be a mechanism that explains these diminishing returns, researchers could get a more nuanced view of how racism impacts the association between education and early mortality among varying ethnic/racial groups. That is, it is not just being a member of a minoritized group that leads to the diminishing returns of education on health outcomes, but the presence of racism and how it impacts minoritized population health and the association between education and health that leads to these diminishing returns.

3. Structural racism and health outcomes

Groos et al. (2018) performed a systematic review of the literature on structural racism and health outcomes to determine how structural racism was quantified. They found 20 articles in the last 10 years that met their inclusion criteria. Groos et al. (2018) suggested that much of the research conducted to understand how racism impacts health has been dominated by individual level perceptions of discrimination using self-report. They suggest that the lag in research on structural forms of racism as a root cause of health inequities is due in part to determining how to quantify them. Although some would say that structural racism depends on historical context, and/or it may be specific to the domain of health that is being investigated, Groos, et al. (2018) called for valid, replicable, and theoretically sound measures of structural racism. These are urgently needed to build the evidence of the costs of structural racism on population health. With this sort of evidence, then interventions may be created that could counteract the costs and end structural racism.

Of the 20 articles reviewed, structural racism was quantified within specific domains like housing patterns, perceptions of structural racism in social institutions, socioeconomic status, criminal justice, immigration and border enforcement, political participation, and workplace. Most of the research was conducted in the context of Black-White racial group comparisons. In total, the articles reviewed showed that structural racism was associated with disparities in health outcomes in terms of violent crime, stress, preterm birth, cancer survival, birth weight, mortality, adherence to hypertensive treatment, psychological well-being, rate of myocardial infarction, infant mortality, self-rated health, and mean arterial pressure, among others ( Groos et al., 2018).

One of the studies included in Groos et al.'s (2018) review was by Lukachko et al. (2014) who examined structural racism at the state level with publicly available data, and the incidence of myocardial infarction. Lukachko et al. (2014) defined structural racism as "the systematic exclusion of non-White racial groups from resources and mobility in society as a means to secure or maintain power." (page 44). The authors used state-level variation in indicators of structural racism including political participation, employment and job status, educational attainment, and incarceration to differentially predict the prevalence of myocardial infarction among Blacks and Whites in the US using a national dataset (National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions). Lukachko et al. (2018) demonstrated that structural racism and race interacted such that Blacks who lived in states with higher levels of most domains of structural racism had greater odds of myocardial infarction, and Whites in those same states had lower odds. Thus, structural racism provided Whites with a protective advantage, while disadvantaging the Blacks in the study depending on the domain of structural racism.

Wallace et al. (2015) and Wallace et al. (2017) did two subsequent studies using Lakachko et al.'s (2014) indicators of structural racism at the state level. In their work, Wallace et al. (2015) demonstrated that structural racism indicators were associated with small-for-gestational-age at birth for both Black and White mothers. Wallace et al. (2017) demonstrated that these same indicators of structural racism were associated with Black infant mortality, with higher inequity in unemployment being associated with a 5% increase in Black infant mortality. Decreased racial inequity in educational attainment was associated with a 10% reduction in Black infant mortality. None of the structural racism indictors were associated with White infant mortality.

4. Current study

In order to continue to contribute to the growing body of literature about the association between structural racism and health outcomes, the current study used the same structural racism indicators as Lukachko et al. (2014) to determine the moderating influence of structural racism on the education gradient for early mortality taking race of participant into account. With ample evidence that education levels are predictive of early mortality, and the growing body of literature that suggests that the education gradient varies by race/ethnicity and income, we hypothesize that 1) those in minoritized populations (i.e. Black) will not reap the same benefits from education as a protective advantage against early all-cause mortality as the White population. More specifically, Black participants with the same education level as White participants will have a higher early all-cause mortality rate than those White participants. Second, we hypothesize that the rates of early all-cause mortality and the education gradient for early all-cause mortality will vary by structural racism variables measured for the state of residence. Specifically, Black participants in states with higher structural racism will have the highest rates of early all-cause mortality and the education gradient (the association between education and mortality) will be weaker in those states.

5. Methods

5.1. Sample

The sample used for the current study came from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Close to 9000 youth between the ages of 12 and 16 were included in the sample of the NLSY97, which was stratified by race, urban vs rural residence, and whether the parent was active in the military. The study was designed to document the transition from school to work and into adulthood. The NLSY97 followed these youth from 1997 annually to 2011, and then biannually in 2013, 2015, and 2017. Data about nonresponse to the survey and reasons for that nonresponse were collected at each wave.

The NLSY97 sample was constructed by randomly selecting housing units within the strata with two samples, the cross-sectional sample and a supplemental sample that oversampled for race/ethnicity. All age-eligible youth were interviewed within a selected housing unit, thus there were multiple respondent households in the sample and thus siblings related by blood, marriage, and/or adoption. The sample can be weighted by a base weight which is the inverse of the probability of selecting that housing unit, making adjustments for screener nonresponse, subsampling of youths, combining the cross sectional and supplemental samples, and non-response in any subsequent wave of data collection. Finally, post stratification occurred to make the sample representative of the population of youth in the US. The original NLSY97 sample had a 92.2% response rate for eligible youth. Given multiple informant households, only one participant from a household was selected for the current project to decrease the nonindependence of responses in the same household. This created an overall sample size of 6819.

There is publicly available data from the NLSY97 as well as restricted data including state of residence at each wave of data collection. Participants come from all 50 states and the District of Columbia as well as some US territories.

The sample for the current project included all participants who had data on their state of residence in 1997 without repeating selected households or including the District of Columbia (9 participants) who identified as White or Black (n = 5365). The demographic data used were race/ethnicity, sex of participant, parent education level, poverty ratio of the family in 1997, and the participant's highest level of education achieved to date, and mortality based on the reasons for nonresponse at each wave.

The final sample consisted of 50.6% males, who were on average 14.4 years of age (sd = 1.48) in 1997. There were 1754 Black participants and 3611 White participants. Forty-three percent of the sample had a high-school degree or less and 57.4 percent had more than a high school education as of 2017. The average log of the poverty ratio for the youth's household in 1997 was 5.28 (sd = 0.978). The mothers of the participants had a range of education levels with 46.3% having less than a high school degree, 36.2% having a high school degree and the rest having some college to graduate degrees. Fathers of the participants had a similar range of education levels with 48% having less than a high school education, 30.8% having a high school education and the rest having some college to a graduate degree.

5.2. Measures

Participant education. The highest grade level completed at the last wave of data collection that the individual participated in the study was used to compute the participant's education. If the participant had more than a high school education they were coded as 2, and if they had a high school degree or less, they were coded as 1. Of the Black participants, 52.1% had more than a high school education. Of the White participants, 63.3% had more than a high school education. This binary variable was used as a predictor of mortality. We elected to use education as a binary variable because this has been done in most the research on education and mortality in the past and provides an easier interpretation of the results for graphing purposes.

Self-reported Health in 1997. Health in 1997 was assessed with a single item asking the participant to rate their general health. This item was "In general how is your health?" The response options were excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor. Self-rated health has been found to be a robust indicator of health and mortality (c.f. Sokol et al., 2017).

Participant Demoghraphics. We included participant sex, and log of the poverty ratio for the household income in 1997 in the equations to predict mortality.

All-cause Mortality. At each wave of data collection, interviewers noted the reason for nonresponse. One of the reasons was mortality, but there were no specifics about causes of death. We used the interviewers' reason for nonresponse as an indicator of all-cause mortality in the sample. There was an overall 2.3% mortality rate in the sample. Average age at death was 25.05 (sd = 5.39) with a range of 15-25 years of age. Table 1 provides the frequency of death by age for the sample. Those who died during the course of the data collection waves were part of the study on average for 10.47 years out of the 20 possible years of the study (sd = 5.32). We had data at each wave of data collection for mortality. If the participant was still living they were coded as 0, if the participant had died they were coded as 1 and as missing at each subsequent data collection.

Table 1

Age

N

15

2

16

4

17

4

18

16

19

9

20

4

21

7

22

9

23

9

24

8

25

12

26

10

27

5

28

8

29

11

30

8

31

9

32

9

33

8

34

5

35

3

Structural Racism Indicators. We followed the work of Lukachko et al. (2014) who developed indicators for structural racism. These indicators were grouped into four themes: political participation, employment and job status, education attainment, and judicial treatment. The is publicly available. For the most part, we used data from the 2010 census and stayed as close to 2010 as possible. Data was available for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. impossible.

Political Participation. These indicators came from the US Census of 2010. These were the relative proportions of Blacks to Whites who were registered to vote and actually voted, as well as those elected to state legislatures (found at National Conference of State Legislatures: ncsl.org).

Employment and job status. These indicators were ratios of Blacks to Whites employed in the civilian labor force, and unemployed, as well as ratios of Blacks to Whites in managerial and professional positions. These data were available by state from the US Department of Labor & Statistics for 2010 ( bls.gov).

Educational Attainment. This was indicated by the ratio of Blacks to Whites who had a college degree from the US Census Bureau available by state for 2010.

Judicial Treatment. These indicators included ratios for Black to White imprisonment, Latinx to White imprisonment, and Black to Total Felony Disenfranchisement (those who were sentenced because of committing a felony, cannot vote). These data came from the Sentencing Project ( sentencingproject.org) for 2015. We also included the Black to White ratio of prisoners on death row in each state for 2010 available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics ( http://usdoj.org).

Following Lukachko et al. (2014) we used a median split of the structural racism indicators. If the score was above the median it was coded as 1 if the ratio suggested more structural racism. If the score was at or below the median it was coded as 0. That is, for example, the ratio of educational attainment was Black residents of a state who attained a college degree over the White residents in the state who attained a college degree. The median was 0.45. If that ratio increased to 1, it would suggest that there was a 1 to 1 ratio of Black to White residents with a college degree indicating less structural racism. Thus a ratio larger than 0.45 was coded as 0, with a ratio equal to or smaller than 0.45 was coded as 1. As another example, the median for the Black to White imprisonment ratio was 5.10 (i.e. there were 5 Black prisoners for every 1 White prisoner). If that ratio increased it would be an indicator of more structural racism, thus anything above 5.1 was coded as 1, while anything at or below the median was coded 0.

5.3. Data analysis plan

We used a random effects model comparing associations between Black participants and White participants with a discrete time survival analysis strategy in M plus 8.2 ( Muthen and Muthen, 2017) to test our hypotheses. First, we created a latent variable for mortality using each time period in the NLSY1997 data set (1998-2017) as indicators, if the participant died in a year their score on the indicator was 1, and then all scores after that were missing. If the participant did not die their score in that year was 0. All the loadings of the indicators on the latent variable were set to 1 and the variance was set to 0 ( Muthen & Muthen, 2012; Singer & Willett, 2003). This analysis provides thresholds for each year that can be used to calculate the hazard probability. We selected a discrete time survival model because the participants in the NLSY1997 were "exposed" for the same amount of time (20 years), and of similar ages at the beginning of that time. We used the latent variable as the dependent variable in a random effects model with health in 1997, poverty ratio, and education level, and state level structural racism variables as predictors (preliminary analyses suggested that sex of participant was not a significant predictor). The education slope was the random effect. We followed Lukachko et al.'s (2014) data analysis plan in that we did not assume that participants were representative of the state of residence but of the population, so that the state level variables although repeated were considered any state with that particular score, rather than a particular state with that score. Thus, we could treat the data as a "one level" model rather than as a multilevel model.

We also used a group comparison procedure to test whether the education gradient and its variation with structural racism variables were different between Black and White participants. We compared the parameters using a Wald χ ² test, comparing the magnitude of the estimates for the structural racism variables on mortality directly, and on the education gradient. We used MLR in M plus which provides maximum likelihood estimation with robust standard errors.

6. Results

There was very little missing data for the variables needed. The only imputation that was conducted was for the poverty ratio variable (26% missing), we used linear interpolation to replace missing on this variable. Table 2 provides the means, medians and ranges of the state level structural racism variables. We also determined the number of participants who moved to a different state between 1997 and 2010 (the year for when the structural racism indicators were generated). There were 1800 cases in which there was no data on the state of residence in 2017. All participants had state of residence data in 1997. Of the participants who reported a state of residence in 2010, none reported having changed their state of residence. As of 2017, 75.4% reported living in the same state of residence as in 1997. Given that a majority of participants remained in the same state of residence and there is no research to suggest which state of residence (the one lived in during adolescence or the current state of residence) matters the most in terms of its moderating effect on early mortality and education, we elected to use state of residence in 1997.

Table 2

Mean Ratio

SD

Median

Range

Political Participation

Educational Attainment

Employment and Job Status

Judicial Treatment

6.1. "Unconditional" model

We first estimated a model with no structural racism variables to test whether the education gradient was statistically different between the Black and White participants, and also test whether the thresholds for mortality were statistically different. The results of these tests can be seen in Table 3 . The Wald tests suggested that there were no statistically significant differences in the education gradient (effect of education on mortality), or the mortality thresholds. The education gradient was significant and negative, suggesting that with more education there was less of a chance of early mortality. These results did not support our first hypothesis that Black participants with the same education level as White participants would have a higher early all-cause mortality rate. Given the rarity of the event, we show the hazard probabilities for both Black and White participants separately but use the same scale for the y axis in Fig. 1 . The dashed lines in the figure represent those with more than a high school education, with their rate close to 0 throughout the exposure period for both Black and White participants (note that for the White participants the dashed line is completely covered by the solid line). The solid line represents those with High School education or less, and though the rate is quite minimal is higher for the Black participants than for the White participants.

Table 3

Black Participants (se) 95% CI

White Participants (se) 95% CI

Wald χ2 Test (df)

6.2. Model results

Political Participation Model. The results of the models that included the structural racism variables as themes, can be seen in Table 4 with the Wald tests that tested for differences in the estimates of the paths as well as the thresholds for mortality. Included in Table 4 are also the 95% confidence intervals for the estimates. For the political participation model, the education gradient remained significant for Black participants, but was no longer significant for White participants. This suggests that when controlling for these forms of structural racism in the model, Black participants with a high-school education or less continue to be at higher risk for early mortality than those with more than a high school education. Education no longer provides a protective advantage for White participants, but the probability of early mortality is lower for all White participants regardless of education level. None of the structural racism variables were significantly predictive of early all cause mortality or the variation in the education gradient.

Table 4

Variable

Black Participants

White Participants

Wald χ² Test (df)b

Effect on Mortality(se)

Effect on Education Gradient(se)

Effect on Mortality(se)

Effect on Education Gradient (se)

(95% CI)

(95%CI)

(95%CI)

(95%CI)

Education

(−1.785: .650)

(-2.00: .924)

Political Participation

(-2.02: .771)

(-1.25:.018)

Employment and Job Status

(-2.844: .301)

(-3.45: 1.13)

Educational Attainment

(-3.69: 1.10)

(-2.033: .324)

Judicial Treatment

(-2.17:1.31)

(-6.45:2.17)

Black/Total Felony Disenfranchisement

1.038(1.04)

−1.212(.658) c

-.430(2.14)

.371(1.64)

29.33(22)

Employment and Job Status Model. The model that included indicators of structural racism around employment and job status showed an increase in the education gradient for both Black and White participants compared to the unconditional model. That is, when controlling for these forms of structural racism, both Black and White participants see a larger gap in early all cause mortality based on education. However, this gap is slightly larger for White participants than Black participants (but not statistically different). That is, White participants tended to reap more of a protective advantage when having more than a high school education, than their Black counterparts. Again, however, none of the structural racism indicators were statistically predictive of early all-cause mortality or the variation in the education gradient.

Educational Attainment Model. The model that included the ratio of Black to White citizens with a bachelor's degree also demonstrated an increase in the education gradient when this was controlled for. For Black participants, when this form of structural racism was controlled for in the model, the education gradient was almost twice the size as in the unconditional model (−2.98 vs −1.21). This same increase was not demonstrated for the White participants. Educational attainment at the state level was also predictive of early all cause mortality, and the variation in the education gradient for Black participants but not White participants. Although the Wald test was not significant, the confidence intervals for the effect of educational attainment on the variation of the education gradient between the two groups did not overlap, suggesting a difference. These results can be seen in Fig. 2 . For the Black participants, having a high school education or less puts them more at risk for early mortality under regardless of the Black to White ratio of educational attainment level in the state (the solid and dotted lines completely overlap). However, comparing the hazard probabilities between Fig. 1 , Fig. 2 , shows that the probability of mortality decreased when controlling for education attainment at the state level. The bigger difference was for the White participants. When controlling for educational attainment at the state level, White participants with a high school education or less appeared to be at higher risk for early mortality than in the unconditional model. It may be the case that when the ratio of Black to White citizens who have a bachelor's degree increases to 1, that actually fewer citizens have a bachelor's degree overall, and this increased the education gradient for White citizens, providing more of a protective advantage for those with more education, while this same protective advantage is not seen for Black citizens.

Judicial Treatment Model. In the model including indicators of structural racism under the theme of judicial treatment, the education gradient was no longer significant for Black participants and although larger in magnitude, no longer significant for White participants. This suggests that when controlling for the ratios of Black to White persons in prison, Black to White persons on death row, and the Black to White ratio of those with felony disenfranchisement at the state level, then education no longer provides a protective advantage against early mortality. The structural racism indicators were not statistically predictive of early mortality, but the felony disenfranchisement ratio trended toward significance in explaining variability in the education gradient for Black participants (p = .065). This was not the case for White participants, none of the structural racism variables were predictive of mortality or the variation in the education gradient. Given the need to understand how structural racism is associated with health outcomes, we elected to create a hazard probability figure for these associations even though the estimate was not statistically significant at conventional levels. The hazard probabilities can be seen in Fig. 3 . In the figure for Black participants, probability of early mortality is higher for those in states with less structural racism (dotted line) than those in states with more structural racism (solid line). For White participants, when controlling for these forms of structural racism, the probability of early mortality is close to 0 regardless of education level. It should be noted that y axis markers vary across the figures. The markers for Fig. 3 are some of the "highest" probabilities. It is not clear why when controlling for these forms of structural racism that the education gradient increases for Black participants in states with lower structural racism and the probability of early all cause mortality increases. In states with higher structural racism, the education gradient disappears for Black participants and the probability of early mortality decreases as well.

The results of the separate analyses under the 4 themes for the indicators of structural racism partially supported our second hypothesis: that the rates of early all-cause mortality and the education gradient for early all-cause mortality would vary by structural racism variables measured for the state of residence. We found that the education gradient varied when controlling for different indicators of structural racism, but only education attainment at the state level was predictive of both early mortality and the variation in the education gradient. We did not find that Black participants in states with higher structural racism had the highest rates of early all-cause mortality nor that the education gradient (the association between education and mortality) was weaker in those states for Black participants.

7. Discussion

The purpose of this project was to test two hypotheses: first, those in minoritized populations (i.e. Black) will not reap the same benefits from education as a protective advantage against early all-cause mortality as the White population. More specifically, Black participants with the same education level as White participants will have a higher early all-cause mortality rate than those White participants. In a Wald test, the association between education and early mortality was not found to be statistically different for Black and White participants. For both Black and White participants the association was negative, suggesting that with more education, the probability of early mortality decreased.

Our second hypothesis was that the rates of early all-cause mortality and the education gradient for early all-cause mortality would vary by structural racism variables measured for the state of residence. Specifically, we proposed that Black participants in states with higher structural racism would have the highest rates of early all-cause mortality and the education gradient (the association between education and mortality) would be weaker in those states. Although the education gradient varied when controlling for the various indicators of structural racism, only one indicator of structural racism, educational attainment, was associated with the rate of early mortality and the variation in the education gradient. For Black participants, living in a state with a lower ratio of Black to White citizens with a bachelor's degree, the probability of early mortality decreased, and the education gradient was weakened with higher structural racism.

The variation in the education gradient when controlling for the various themes of structural racism is worth noting. As can be seen in Table 4 , for the Black participants, when controlling for political participation, and employment and job status, the education gradient is virtually unchanged, while controlling for educational attainment the education gradient was larger, and while controlling for judicial treatment the gradient was sharply decreased. A larger negative number suggests a larger gap in the probability of early mortality between those with a high-school education or less, and those with more than a high school education. A smaller negative number indicates a flattening of that gap, or that education no longer is a predictor of early mortality. The shifts in the education gradient were different for the White participants. The gap was decreased when controlling for political participation, increased with controlling for employment and job status, stayed the same for education attainment, and increased for judicial treatment. These variations as well as the lack of consistency in which indicators of structural racism were significant, suggest that these indicators may not be indicators of the same construct, or structural racism is made up of multiple constructs that may not be interrelated. Much more research needs to be conducted with these same and other indicators of structural racism.

Assari (2018) proposed the Minority Diminishing Returns Theory to explain the differences in the education gradient for health outcomes for minoritized populations. The results of the current study suggest that returns on more education also depend on at least one indicator of structural racism at the state level (educational attainment). When including educational attainment at the state level, Black participants showed a decrease in returns on more education, but a decrease in the probability of early mortality as well. It was also the case that some of the indicators of structural racism increased the gradient or created a larger gap in the probability of premature mortality between those with more and those with less education. This was true for all participants as well, not just those in minoritized populations. This evidence supports the idea that structural racism may be costing all citizens not just minoritized populations, although Black individuals seemed to be assuming the greatest cost in the education gradient overall.

Montez et al. (2019) showed that the education gradient for adult mortality varied by state (without including indicators of structural racism) and that those with the lowest levels of education were put at increasing risk for mortality, while mortality rates for those with more education remained stable. That is, adults with less education have shorter life expectancies than adults with more education, and this gap has been increasing over the last several decades ( Bosworth, 2018). Montez et al. (2019) explained their findings by suggesting that US states vary in policies, resources and opportunity structures which effects population health and that these effects can be independent of local residence and individual characteristics. The results of the current study support that there are varying education gradients by state, and by controlling for indicators of structural racism, the education gradient also varied. These indicators may be implicating what Montez et al. (2019) suggested (i.e. policies, resources and opportunity structures). Montez et al. (2019) suggested that most studies use an individualist approach to the education gradient suggesting that education is a personal resource that leads to agency and human capital to acquire resources and avoid risks of mortality. Montez et al. (2019) and the results of the current study showed that taking an individualist approach overlooks the fact that context matters. "Individuals are embedded in epidemiological, socioeconomic, and policy contexts that may condition the effects of education on mortality." ( Montez et al., 2019, p. 623).

Early mortality was rare in this sample with only 160 deaths of 5365 participants. The probability of dying young varied when controlling for different forms of structural racism at the state level and at least one of these variables also influenced the education gradient associated with the probability of early mortality as well. The probability of early mortality tended to be higher for Black participants in this study regardless of structural racism indicators, although this was not statistically significant given the rarity of the event. Bosworth (2018) suggested the disparity in all-cause mortality for those aged between 18 and 34 among Black versus White individuals was at 41.2%. The results of the current study provide a similar disparity among Black and White participants.

It is important to note that White participants' probability of early mortality and education gradient was influenced by these forms of structural racism but not to the same degree as Black participants. In the case of education attainment at the state level, when controlling for this, the education gradient was wider for White participants. It may be the case that when the ratio of Black to White citizens with a bachelor's degree tends toward 1, that it actually means that fewer people in the state have a bachelor's degree. When that is the case, the education gradient increases for White citizens, meaning that White citizens with a high school education or less are at an even higher risk for early mortality than their more educated counterparts.

8. Limitations

There are more than likely other indictors of structural racism at the state level. The one's used in this study were the same as those used by Lukachko et al. (2014) who demonstrated an association between these indicators and the incidents of myocardial infarction among Black and White participants. Wallace and colleagues ( Wallace et al., 2015; Wallace et al., 2017) used these indicators and showed associations with birthweight and infant mortality rates among Black and White populations across the US states. We were able to find the structural racism data staying close to 2010, but state of residence that was used for the study came from 1997 when the participants were still living with their families of origin. The current state of residence was not used, nor was migration to other states controlled for. The question remains about when, developmentally, structural racism has its strongest effects on life course trajectories. It may be that structural racism present during formative years is more impactful than in later years. This is a question for future research.

The results presented were not weighted. M plus does not assign weights in the same way when using random effects modeling and rather than trying to determine the best way to use weighting in this study, we elected not to use weights, thus these results may not be representative of the US population of youth in 1997. We also had no information about the cause of death. Studies have suggested that increases in early mortality are due to drug overdoses and suicide (e.g. Shields et al., 2017; Olson et al., 2017). We had no way to determine cause of death for this study.

Thankfully, early mortality was extremely rare in this sample. This may be a reason for finding few conventionally statistically significant results. There is some debate about what level of statistical significance should be used for rare occurrences, and some suggest using Bayesian estimators and confidence intervals. Unfortunately, the version of M plus available on the secure server did not allow for the use of a random effects model and Bayesian estimation. This is a suggestion for further research in this area.

9. Conclusions

Olson et al. (2017) reported that early life mortality rates (before the age of 50) are higher in the US than any other high-income country. The results of this study suggest that at least some of that disadvantage could be due to structural racism. There has been an increasing call for studies that focus on not only self-reported experiences of racism and discrimination, but for indicators of structural or institutional racism and how these effect health (i.e. Bailey et al., 2021; Neblett, 2019). The results of this study demonstrate that some indicators of structural racism matter not only for variations in the rate of early mortality, but also for how education is associated with the probability of early mortality. As we continue to study the effects of racism on health, it is also important to understand that social determinants of health, such as education, and their advantages and disadvantages on health and health disparities also vary by structural racism. That is, even though we know that there are social determinants of health, we can not assume that all people will reap the same benefits or incur the same costs from these in the context of varying levels of structural racism.

Author statement

Suzanne Bartle-Haring wrote the introduction, methods and results section and performed all statistical analyses. Riley Whiting reviewed the manuscript and wrote the discussion section in collaboration with first author.

Ethical statement

The data for this project came from both the publicly available data from the NLSY97 dataset offered by the Bureau of Labor of Statistics. We also sought and received permission to use geocode data and analyzed all data within the NORC Enclave. The NLSY97 was approved as human subjects research by the BLS and the Ohio State University's Behavioral and Social Science IRB.

Declaration of competing interest

To the best of our knowledge there is not conflict of interest in the publishing of this manuscript.

References

Groos M., Wallace M., Hardeman R., Theall K. Measuring inequity: A systematic review of methods used to quantify structural racism. Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice. 2018;11:190-206. [http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/jhdrp/ Google Scholar]

Muthen L., Muthen B. 2012. Mplus user's guide: Version 7. [Google Scholar]

Muthén L.K., Muthén B.O. Authors; Los Angeles, CA: 2017. Mplus (version 8) [Google Scholar]

Singer J.D., Willett J.B. Oxford University Press; 2003. Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. [Google Scholar]

Articles from SSM - Population Health are provided here courtesy of Elsevier

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Structural racism and the education gradient for early all-cause mortality

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There are clear connections between education achieved and health over the course of a lifetime, with higher education achievement being associated with better health. However, the association between education and mortality have differed by race, with minoritized populations reaping fewer benefits from education attained.

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Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Ralph Bunche: Dr. Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his ability to mediate the Arab-Israeli war in the Middle East from 1947 to 1949.
December 25: Florida NAACP official Harry T. Moore and his wife Harriett are killed by a bomb. This is the first assassination of a civil rights leader in United States history. Moore has fought for Black rights in Florida for several years, calling attention to police brutality against Black Americans, systemic injustices in education, and lynchings.
Lynchings Decline: For the first time in 70 years, the Tuskegee Institute finds that there are no lynchings reported in the United States. Between 1882 and 1968, an estimated 4,742 people are lynched, the majority of them Black.
Invisible Man: Writer Ralph Ellison publishes "Invisible Man." This novel follows a Black narrator as he grows up in the south before the Civil War, attends and is expelled from a Black college, and experiences various emotional traumas including grief.
May 17: The U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case, ruling that such practices violate the 14th Amendment rights of Black Americans; specifically, rights granted by the "equal protection of the law" clause.

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From the Brown vs. Board of Education decision to the murder of Emmitt Till and the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, these are the pivotal historical events in African-American history that occurred in the decade spanning 1950 through 1959.

Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his ability to mediate the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.

Gwendolyn Brooks receives the Pulitzer Prize in poetry. She is the first African-American to receive such a distinction.

Chuck Cooper, Nathaniel Clifton, and Earl Lloyd become the first African-Americans to play for the National Basketball Association.

Juanita Hall becomes the first African-American to win a Tony Award for her portrayal of Bloody Mary in "South Pacific".

Racial segregation in Washington D.C. restaurants is declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

An estimated 3500 whites try to keep an African-American family from moving into an apartment building in Cicero. As a result, Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson calls the state's national guard to protect the family.

Florida NAACP official Harry T. Moore is killed by a bomb.

Johnson Publishing Company prints its first issue of Jet.

For the first time in more than 70 years, the Tuskegee Institute finds that there are no lynchings reported in the United States.

Writer Ralph Ellison publishes " Invisible Man".

In June, African-American residents of Baton Rouge establish a boycott of the city's segregated transportation system.

James Baldwin publishes his first novel, "Go Tell It On The Mountain".

Willie Thrower joins the Chicago Bears and becomes the first African-American quarterback in the National Football League (NFL).

The U.S. Supreme Court declares segregation in public schools unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case.

Benjamin Oliver Davis Jr. is the first African-American to be appointed as an Air Force general after serving in the Korean War.

Malcolm X becomes Minister of the Nation of Islam's Temple No. 7 in New York City.

Frankie Muse Freeman becomes the first African-American woman to win a major civil rights case after serving as the lead attorney for the NAACP in the Davis et al. v. the St. Louis Housing Authority case. The ruling ended racial discrimination in public housing in St. Louis.

While visiting family in Money, Miss., 14-year-old Chicagoan Emmett Till is killed by white men.

Rock 'n roll artist Chuck Berry records the hit song "Maybellene" with Chess Records.

Rosa Parks is arrested after refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery Bus to a white patron.

Marian Anderson is the first African-American to perform with the Metropolitan Opera.

Martin Luther King Jr. is elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The organization leads a year-long boycott against Montgomery's segregated transportation system.

Nat King Cole becomes the first African-American to host a primetime show on national television.

Harry Belafonte's album "Calypso" is the first record to sell more than one million copies.

The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in the Gayle v. Browder case declares it is unconstitutional to segregate transportation on intrastate travel. This ruling supports those participating in the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Congress establishes the Civil Rights Act of 1957. This is the first legislative act protecting the rights of African-Americans since the Reconstruction period by establishing the Civil Rights section of the Justice Department. Federal prosecutors are now able to get court injunctions against those who interfere with the right to vote. Under this act, the Federal Civil Rights Commission is also established.

Dorothy Irene Height is elected president of the National Council of Negro Women. Height holds this position for 41 years.

Federal troops are sent to Little Rock, Ark by Dwight Eisenhower to enforce the desegregation of Central High School. The troops are also instructed to protect nine African-American students who are enrolled in the school and remain for the entire academic year.

The Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) was established in Birmingham.

Perry H. Young becomes the first African-American pilot of a commercial passenger airline.

Motown Records is formed by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit.

Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis records "Kind of Blue". The work is considered Davis' masterpiece.

"A Raisin in the Sun", a play written by Lorraine Hansberry opens on Broadway. The play is the first to be produced by an African-American woman on Broadway.

Three days before he is scheduled to stand trial for raping a pregnant white woman, Mack Charles Parker is beaten by a mob in his jail cell. Parker is lynched near Poplarville, Miss.

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These Are the Pivotal Events in African-American History in the 1950s

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From the Brown vs. Board of Education decision to the murder of Emmitt Till and the dawn of the Civil Rights movement, these are the pivotal historical events in African-American history that occurred in the decade spanning 1950 through 1959. Ralph Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his ability to mediate the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East.

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This led to the displacement of 8,000 residents over the next five years, creating even more over-crowding in the Middle and Upper Hill neighborhoods. This caused the demise of much of the city’s cultural vibrancy, and effectively altered the character of the Hill to the present day.

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For the huge numbers of African Americans fleeing the South in the post-Civil War 1880s, few destinations held as much promise as the booming city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Hoping for jobs in the steel and railroad industries and escape from the Jim Crow segregationist laws of the Reconstruction-era South, blacks flocked to Pittsburgh and specifically to the Hill District, a neighborhood close to downtown but up against steep hills that made it an undesirable living location for the city's upper classes. Though Pittsburgh was by no means free of racial prejudice, African Americans formed tight communities in the Hill District, a city-within-a-city nationally recognized by the 1930s as a mecca of black culture and business. It was home to one of the country's most vibrant jazz scenes and one of the finest teams in baseball, the Negro League Pittsburgh Crawfords, who played in Greenlee Field, the first black-owned and black-built baseball park in America.

But as the century moved forward, deteriorating infrastructure hung as a shadow over the neighborhood. In 1943, City Councilman George E. Evans wrote that "approximately 90 per cent of the buildings in the area are sub-standard... and so there would be no social loss if these were all destroyed." Regardless of whether the Hill's buildings were in need of repair, the city was really in search of a place to build the new Civic Arena, and chose to demolish the Lower Hill District in 1956 to create a building site. This led to the displacement of 8,000 residents over the next five years, creating even more over-crowding in the Middle and Upper Hill neighborhoods. This caused the demise of much of the city's cultural vibrancy, and effectively altered the character of the Hill to the present day.

Furthermore, after World War II, Pittsburgh as a whole entered a period of economic decline as the city lost increasing numbers of jobs and people to the suburbs and to overseas manufacturing. During this time, Pittsburgh's African-American population actually grew and gained a larger share of the city's total - reaching about 12% in 1950 - but continued to face unfair employment practices and barriers to where they could live. From the early 1950s through the 1960s, the unemployment rate of blacks was more than double that of whites, and income discrepancies were rampant. Although the city passed a municipal fair employment practices ordinance in 1953, the Pittsburgh area office accounted for nearly 25% of all discrimination complaint cases statewide.

August Wilson's Fences is set in 1957, a landmark year in the early Civil Rights Movement: it was the year that Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his famous "Give Us the Ballot" speech during the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom, and Congress passed the first Civil Rights Act since Reconstruction. Wilson's play focuses on the daily African-American experience rather than the important events of the era, reminding us how slowly the effects of the Civil Rights Movement were felt by the average citizen.

Top: Josh Gibson, who was known as "The Black Babe Ruth," surrounded by fans of one of Pittsburgh's two Negro League baseball teams, the Homestead Grays

Bottom: Pittsburgh's Hill District circa 1956, after the demolition for, and beginning of construction of, the Civic Arena (top right)

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Pittsburgh, 1957: A Mecca of Black Culture and Business Destroyed (From the Playbill)

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For the huge numbers of African Americans fleeing the South in the post-Civil War 1880s, few destinations held as much promise as the booming city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

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1- The symbolism refers to different or segregated scenes or roles played by characters, for example a man in authority could be played by a white man and the worker would be played by a black man. Fences empower black people by showing how far we've come from segregation and jim crow. Fences oppresses Americans and specifically black people by reminding everyone of what was present and accepted not too long ago. The cultural message is that in spite of all the cultural clashes between black and white we as Americans have come a long way from racism in our government and neighborhoods.

2- When I hear the term fence the term that comes to my mind is segregation and the image is separation. The thought that comes into my head when you say Fences feel isolated. Fence change depending on the context because in the book the time period help the image of speratoinist come to mind but in our current time period we could think of the white fences that keep animals out and a good aesthetic for your house.

3- This takes courage to present black people like this because at the time it was wrong to think of a black man as anything more than a white man so spreading information implying that is wrong through books is a bold idea.

4- For the first picture it symbolizes the variety of blakc people and their unique culture by making them in different scraps of paper combined together and for the second picture it symbolizes the vibrance in the working life of black people shown by the factories they commonly worked on and their homes show in the bottom right.

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1.Wilson felt inspired to create a play that portrays the African American experience through the 20th Century because of where he grew up. Wilson grew up in  the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the play Fences it presents the hardness a man develops after his athletic talents and opportunity for a better future are wasted because of racism. As a black man in the 20th century Racism affected every aspect of their lives. 

# data[].attributes.subject
1.Wilson felt inspired to create a play that portrays the African American experience through the 20th Century because of where he grew up. Wilson grew up in  the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In the play Fences it presents the hardness a man develops after his athletic talents and opportunity for a better future are wasted because of racism. As a black man in the 20th century Racism affected every aspect of their lives. 

# data[].attributes.headline
2.In the 1950’s it was evident that Philadelphia’s civil rights reforms had not produced the kinds of fundamental change in race relations that civil rights activists had predicted. The vast majority of black Philadelphians remained locked into the city’s worst communities and at the bottom of the city’s labor markets. Another  event in the 1950’s was , the Commission on Human Relations announced that it would begin exploring racial discrimination in the city’s building trades industry. In an industry heavily dependent on government contracts controlled employment, the City Charter’s ban on racial discrimination in contracts seemed an ideal mechanism to open up employment in the skilled trades to black workers. Another event during the 1950s was a Black clergy that gave rise to a series of boycotts demanding fair employment opportunities and winning some victories.  

# data[].attributes.subject
2.In the 1950’s it was evident that Philadelphia’s civil rights reforms had not produced the kinds of fundamental change in race relations that civil rights activists had predicted. The vast majority of black Philadelphians remained locked into the city’s worst communities and at the bottom of the city’s labor markets. Another  event in the 1950’s was , the Commission on Human Relations announced that it would begin exploring racial discrimination in the city’s building trades industry. In an industry heavily dependent on government contracts controlled employment, the City Charter’s ban on racial discrimination in contracts seemed an ideal mechanism to open up employment in the skilled trades to black workers. Another event during the 1950s was a Black clergy that gave rise to a series of boycotts demanding fair employment opportunities and winning some victories.  

# data[].attributes.headline
3.Based on the knowledge of the plays, some predictions of the characters I can make are that they are most likely African-Americans. Looking at the list of plays below, next to the title it also gives the date that the play took time in, for example the Piano Lesson. The play took place in the 30’s where jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music. The plot probably consists of an African American boy who wanted to learn how to play the piano since that type of music became popular. 

# data[].attributes.subject
3.Based on the knowledge of the plays, some predictions of the characters I can make are that they are most likely African-Americans. Looking at the list of plays below, next to the title it also gives the date that the play took time in, for example the Piano Lesson. The play took place in the 30’s where jazz emerged as a dominant form in American music. The plot probably consists of an African American boy who wanted to learn how to play the piano since that type of music became popular. 

# data[].attributes.headline
4.This map is based on a map of the Hill District from 1923 that hangs in the August Wilson Room in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The map he creates identifies locations that are both fictitious and real. Aunt Ester’s house, 1839 Wylie Avenue. The most important location in the Pittsburgh Cycle is a faded mansion from the nineteenth century. In Radio Golf, it is described as a “Federalist brick house with a good double-base foundation” with a staircase made of “Brazilian wood with a hand-carved balustrade.” 

# data[].attributes.subject
4.This map is based on a map of the Hill District from 1923 that hangs in the August Wilson Room in the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The map he creates identifies locations that are both fictitious and real. Aunt Ester’s house, 1839 Wylie Avenue. The most important location in the Pittsburgh Cycle is a faded mansion from the nineteenth century. In Radio Golf, it is described as a “Federalist brick house with a good double-base foundation” with a staircase made of “Brazilian wood with a hand-carved balustrade.” 

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5.In Wilson’s early life his father was mostly absent in his life. The neighborhood he grew up in was primarily populated by Black Americans, Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson and his siblings had a difficult life because they were biracial. He struggled with finding a sense of belonging to a particular culture and did not feel that he truly fit into African-American culture or White culture until later in life.. He chose to write about the difficulties of African Amercians because he states that “The real struggle has been since Africans first set foot on the continent, an affirmation of the value of one’s self.” 

# data[].attributes.subject
5.In Wilson’s early life his father was mostly absent in his life. The neighborhood he grew up in was primarily populated by Black Americans, Jewish and Italian immigrants. Wilson and his siblings had a difficult life because they were biracial. He struggled with finding a sense of belonging to a particular culture and did not feel that he truly fit into African-American culture or White culture until later in life.. He chose to write about the difficulties of African Amercians because he states that “The real struggle has been since Africans first set foot on the continent, an affirmation of the value of one’s self.” 