Black Health and Wellness: Pain, Pride and Progress

WASHINGTON, D.C. — This Black History Month, we at the Gallup Center on Black Voices look forward to honoring the triumphs, contributions and struggles of Black people in U.S. history. As the global pandemic enters its third year, this year’s focus on health and wellness provides an opportunity to honor our past, celebrate our achievements and press for progress.

Frankly, we can’t talk about health and wellness without also talking about Black history — a story of struggle, overcoming, trauma, resilience, exploitation and joy. It’s a story of racial disparities in healthcare access and quality, and the involuntary sacrifices made by Henrietta Lacks and many others. At the same time, we take great pride in the numerous medical breakthroughs from Dr. Charles Richard Drew to Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and the contributions we continue to make.

While we have made great progress, there remains much to do. Health and wellbeing are one of the key pillars of our research at the Gallup Center on Black Voices. This month, we will present our latest findings in this area, including the Black experience with the U.S. healthcare system and the state of Black Americans’ health and wellbeing. We are focused on reviewing historical trends but also highlighting how current conditions can be improved.

We know that representation in the workplace benefits the work lives of Black employees, but how does representation in healthcare impact patient experiences and, by extension, patient life outcomes? And what does a lack of representation mean for Black Americans in overall health and wellbeing? We look forward to sharing our insights on those questions with you this month.

We encourage you to visit our site throughout February, where we will showcase our latest findings on Black Americans’ health and wellbeing, and to subscribe to keep up with all of our ongoing research and insights on the perspectives and experiences of Black Americans.

Camille Lloyd is the Director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices.

Whitney DuPree is the Associate Director of the Gallup Center on Black Voices.