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Lynchburg Infant Mortality and Deaths Under One Year, 1931-1935

The severe economic conditions of the Great Depression took their toll on black babies, with a death rate much higher than for white babies. One reason for the high rate was the Depression-era shortage of black doctors, dentists, and nurses.

As late as 1949 the infant death rate in Virginia was higher than the national average mainly because of the infant deaths among African Americans. Even today in Lynchburg, the mortality rate for minority infants is more than twice that of whites.

Lynchburg Health Department statistics prepared by Jessica Lane and Farah Marks

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