The State, September 11, 2020: Coronavirus live updates: Here’s what to know in South Carolina on Sept. 11
A new study by a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit has found residents in Columbia’s historically Black neighborhoods face shorter lifespans and greater risk factors for COVID-19, The State reported.
Those neighborhoods include Waverly, Celia Saxon, Edgewood, Martin Luther King and Lyon Street, where residents are more likely to suffer from asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure than those in whiter neighborhoods nearby.
Jesse Van Tol, CEO of the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, said higher rates of infection and deaths “in communities of color” were already known, “but this study gives us a deeper understanding of why,” he said.
The study found modern health disparities correlate to discriminatory housing practices — also known as redlining — that have kept Black residents in segregated neighborhoods since the Jim Crow era, according to The State.
