Public school integration following Brown v. Board of Education appears to have provided lasting health benefits for Black women, according to new research examining breast cancer incidence rates spanning nearly two decades.
A study published in Cancer Causes Control analyzed cancer statistics from 2001 to 2019, focusing on women born between 1937 and 1950 in Missouri and South Carolina. These two states took drastically different approaches to school integration, with Missouri swiftly integrating its public schools in 1955 while South Carolina continued resisting integration through 1970.
Researchers found striking differences in breast cancer rates among non-Hispanic Black women who attended integrated schools as younger students. Among Black women in Missouri born from 1944 to 1950, breast cancer incidence was significantly lower compared to both white women in Missouri and Black women in South Carolina within the same age group.
Education has long been established as a key determinant of health, with higher educational attainment linked to improved health outcomes and better management of chronic disease. This research suggests that equal access to quality education through integrated schools created protective spillover effects that persisted throughout life.
For Black women born earlier between 1937 and 1943, who would have been older during integration efforts, no significant differences in breast cancer incidence appeared between racial groups in either state. This timing suggests younger students benefited more from integrated educational environments.
The findings underscore the importance of policies that combat ongoing de facto school segregation, demonstrating how educational equity can reduce racial health disparities that emerge decades later.
See: “Spillover effects of public school integration in the southern United States: diverging trends in statewide annual breast cancer incidence, 2001-2019” (February 6, 2026)
