2005 (National Center for Health Statistics (2007). Similarly, although infant mortality has declined over time for both blacks and whites, the relative gap between the races is much wider today than it was in 1950 (Williams and Jackson 2005; NCHS 2007). For some health outcomes, the disparities are worsening. Trend data for heart disease and cancer—the two leading causes of death in the United States—indicate that blacks and whites had comparable death rates for these conditions in 1950, but African Americans now have higher mortality rates than whites (Williams and Jackson 2005; NCHS 2007).
