Comparative Flu Mortality (Choropleth)
How to use this map
This map compares white and African-American mortality rates using a choropleth county system. African-American mortality rates are represented in the top map and white mortality rates are represented in the bottom map. The more intense the red shading for a county, the higher the mortality rate is. Hover your cursor over a county to see the mortality rate for that given county.
The interface to the right of the map allows visitors to select which counties they want to compare. The sliders entitled “Black Mortality Rate Range” and “White Mortality Rate Range” at the top of the interface allows visitors to select the severity of mortality rates they want to compare per race. Move the slider to the right and the map will filter out counties with lower mortality rates. Move the slider to the left and the map will filter out counties with higher mortality rates.
What does this map reveal?
African Americans clearly suffered higher mortality rates than whites in most Florida counties. The red shading of the African-American map is more intense in three-fourths of the entire map of Florida.
In the “White Mortality Rate Range” at the top right of the map, click on the “0.3” value and enter “3.6” to filter the map to show the upper-half of the white mortality rate range (3.6 is half of 7.2, the extent of that range). Doing so will show you the counties where whites suffered most. Whites suffered high mortality rates in counties with large cities. However, the counties where white mortality rates were higher than black mortality rates were rural counties.
Now, set the “White Mortality Rate Range” back to “0.3.” In the “Black Mortality Rate Range” click on the “0.00” value and enter “5.3” to filter the map to show the upper-half of the African-American mortality rate range (5.3 is half of 10.6, the extent of that range). Doing so will show you the counties where African Americans suffered most. These were rural north-central Florida counties.
While many whites and African Americans died in counties with cities, it appears their highest mortality rates were in rural counties. While there were less deaths in rural counties than ones with cities, the impact of those deaths were harder on rural counties because their population sizes were small, contributing to higher mortality rates compared to counties with large population centers.
A black man outside his log cabin home somewhere in Florida, 1918. White leaders subjected African Americans to the mechanisms of slow violence, denying them social services and forcing them into rurality, where they faced diseases like the flu alone. Courtesy of Florida Memory.