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Toward the end of the 19th century, the superintendent of Georgia’s State Asylum, T.O. Powell, developed a theory to explain rising numbers of tuberculosis and insanity cases among the state’s African American population. The problem, he asserted, was that Emancipation eliminated the slave system’s healthful effects — a remarkably ahistorical claim that ignored not only slavery’s brutality but also a similar post-war epidemic in white people.
As his racist ideas informed public-health efforts, the consequences reached far beyond the dangers to his charges at the asylum. Today, as the world faces the COVID-19 pandemic, Powell’s story is a cautionary tale about the consequences of allowing prejudice to override the lessons of science. In an era when “essential” workers of color are among the least paid and protected, when many of America’s national leaders declare viruses “foreign” (feeding a spike in anti-Asian violence), and when shocking recent data shows that African Americans are disproportionately dying from the epidemic (making up more than 70% of Chicago’s deaths, for example), Powell’s choices should strike us as frighteningly familiar.
Here’s how it played...