Out of Breath: Toward a New Origin Story of Public Health

Abstract Problems caused by overcrowding and the simple need to breathe represent one of the major consequences of medical racism. With few exceptions, histories of epidemics, disease prevention, and sanitation often focus on municipal reform efforts to clean up gritty urban centers from London to Paris to New York. This article traces how concerns about ventilation emerged during the transatlantic slave trade and continued to be a problem for Black people throughout the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The article emphasizes that Black people were not just the victims of medical racism but initiated many crusades in the United States to promote better ventilation throughout the twentieth century. This article highlights the work of Black reformers, doctors, and thinkers who fought to create healthy living conditions for Black people.