In 1899, W.E.B. Du Bois published “The Philadelphia Negro,” a first-of-its-kind sociological case study of a Black community, combining urban ethnography, social history, and descriptive statistics. Its novel use of data to identify racial inequity undoubtedly influenced Du Bois’ vision for the NAACP, which he would go on to help found, as an organization that uses empirical evidence and facts in its efforts to dismantle injustice.

In the spirit of Du Bois and others who have pursued truth and justice, the NAACP and the Brookings Institution have partnered to develop tools and resources that will empower communities with data and information. The partnership’s primary project is the Black Progress Index, which provides a means to understand the health and well-being of Black people and the conditions that shape their lives.

The Black Progress Index will evolve over the course of the partnership, but its first step is to find the places where Black people are thriving most, as measured through the social predictors of life expectancy at birth. In other words, the Black Progress Index identifies and measures the social conditions that predict long and healthy lives for Black Americans.

We chose to focus on the social conditions that predict life expectancy because they are a cumulative measure of health and well-being, summarizing many biological and non-biological influences on our lives. People tend to live longer in places where they evaluate their lives positively and enjoy excellent physical and mental health. Unlike other summary measures of well-being and health, life expectancy can be readily analyzed using the same data and methods across most U.S. counties and metropolitan areas.

We highlight the areas where Black people have been living the longest because it may provide insight into the local civic actions that have produced those outcomes—actions that other places may take. Each year, we will add additional focal points of well-being, building out a comprehensive examination of the living conditions of Black people.

To emphasize Black health is not to de-emphasize social inequity. The legacy of structural racism pervades the country in the form of lower wealth and socioeconomic status for Black people. In turn, this legacy influences the so-called “social determinants of health,” which we define as patterns of behavior and environmental conditions that have largely social causes, but also biological implications on mental and physical health. Relatively low levels of college completion, low wealth, and high exposure to violent crime are especially relevant examples of these social determinants.

A goal of this research is to identify which social factors are the most important, provide evidence on the size of their effects, and track the places that do better or worse on these factors, as well as the places that over- or under-perform relative to predictions. There may be valuable lessons from the people and organizations in places that have better outcomes than expected.[1]

Read the full article about the Black Progress Index by Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell at Brookings.