Abstract

Courthouse Confederate Monuments, Age, and Pulmonary Circulatory Outcomes among African American Men and Women

Jasmine Aboumahboob¹, Ryan Talbert, PhD² (1)University of Connecticut, (2)Department of Sociology, University of Connecticut

APHA 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

While multiple historically significant events have increased attention on Confederate monuments, little research has investigated the potential health consequences of such iconography. This study uses insights from social stress theory and the life course perspective to examine associations between the presence of courthouse Confederate monuments and pulmonary circulatory health among African American men and women. Data on Confederate monuments come from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) novel census of monuments supplemented by independent verification. SPLC data are merged with the National Survey of American Life (n=3,417), which includes a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. Multiple self-reported health outcomes are examined—hypertension, diabetes, heart trouble, circulation problems, asthma, and stroke. After adjusting for important risk factors, results from gender-stratified logistic regressions reveal that age modifies associations between residing in a county with a Confederate monument on courthouse grounds and women’s odds of hypertension, diabetes, and asthma. For African American men, age modifies associations between monument presence and odds of heart trouble and stroke. Aging in spaces with Confederate monuments is generally though counterintuitively associated with reduced likelihood of developing circulatory conditions. Although findings from this study largely demonstrate that stress exposures generated by the quantity and injustice of Confederate monuments have large implications for racial health disparities, results also document extensive resiliency and resourcefulness among African Americans in the face of white supremacy that is protective of health.