The “Breeding Ground of Disease” in the Backyard: Segregation, Washington, D.C.'s Inhabited Alleys, and Elite Fears of Disease

Carolyn Swope, Columbia University

In the early 1900s, many alleys in Washington, D.C., were densely inhabited by impoverished Black residents, dispersed throughout the city’s neighborhoods. In this paper, I map Washington’s alleys and link them to population and disease data, drawing on two years of Board of Health reports. Combining quantitative, qualitative, and spatial sources through the use of HGIS enables new perspectives on segregation, public health, and the racialized efforts of housing reformers during this period. Reformers argued that alleys were health hazards and called for elimination of alley dwellings, graphically detailing purportedly unsanitary conditions and highlighting higher overall mortality rates for alley residents. An analysis of the spatial distribution of alley deaths from infectious disease, however, complicates this sensationalist portrayal. During the study period, half of alleys had no deaths from infectious disease, and among Black residents, mortality rates from infectious disease in alleys were little different from in streets. Exploring the stark difference between the backgrounds of elite white reformers and alley residents, I argue that reformers’ perceptions were informed by understandings of Black communities as inherently pathological under a paradigm of environmental determinism.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 81. Health and Hazards II : Spatial & Historical Perspectives