Housing discrimination dating back to the 1940s put Black Americans more at risk of contracting and dying from the Covid-19 coronavirus. Here’s how. | Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Racist WWII housing policy might not sound like it has much to do with the coronavirus. But it does. One thing hasn’t changed as a new surge of coronavirus cases has swelled across the United States: Black Americans continue to disproportionately get infected by and die from this novel pathogen.