The Political Empowerment and Health Status of African-Americans: Mapping a New Territory

This article examines the impact of black political gains on black and white postneonatal mortality. Two dimensions of black political empowerment are examined, absolute political power and relative political power. The analysis examines all U.S. central cities with a population of at least 50,000 residents, 10% of whom are black. Absolute black political power did not influence postneonatal mortality for blacks or whites. However, there is a negative association between relative balck political power and the black postneonatal mortality rate. Black political power had no significant effect on whithe postneonatal mortality. The implications of these findings for medical sociology theory are discussed.