The Conditions Were Too Much to Hide

Accession Number P75-54-N968g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Accession Number P75-54-0993g, Hughes Company Glass Negatives Collection,

Courtesy of the Photography Collections, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Blacks in poverty suffered through more than overcrowding. These areas were known for their deplorable conditions. One area off of Pennsylvania Avenue was known as “Lung Block” because the death rate from tuberculosis was 958 per 100,000 when the city average was 131.1. The conditions resemble the findings of Jacob Riis in his work, How the Other Half Lives .