As the coronavirus tightens its grip across the country, it is cutting a particularly devastating swath through an already vulnerable population – black Americans. Leaders in cities hard-hit by the pandemic have been sounding the alarm over what they see as a disturbing trend of the virus killing African Americans at a higher rate, along with a lack of overall information about the race of victims as the nation’s death toll mounts. An Associated Press analysis found that 42% of the victims whose demographic data was shared by local officials were black, even though African Americans account for roughly 21% of the population in the areas covered the analysis.
