Health outcomes have improved for all Americans. Because of systemic differences in access to health (PDF), Black Americans in 1900 were expected to live only 33 years—14.6 fewer years than white Americans. We saw remarkable convergence until 2017 (latest data available), when Black Americans were expected to live 75.3 years—3.5 fewer years than white Americans. While important and large systemic differences still exist, the dramatic closing of the gap mirrors convergence in other measures of well-being, such as education and income.
Although we can see that there has been a convergence in LEB by race, it is important to know what is driving that change. Recently there have been studies into the convergence of life expectancy in Black and white Americans.
Heart-related improvements were the largest contributors to the increased life expectancy from 1980s to 2000s, cancer and accidents (including homicides) were the largest contributors to the convergence (the narrowing gap) in life-expectancy from 1980s to 2000s. Over that period, Black Americans increased their life expectancy by almost as much as white Americans for certain causes of death; in the case of heart-related deaths, it was 3.2 years versus 3.3 years, respectively.
For other causes, Black Americans improved their life-expectancy by more than the gains experienced by white Americans, possibly because of improved access to health care system; in the case of cancer, the increase was one year versus six months, respectively.
Similarly, largely due to lower homicide rates (PDF), which are included under accidents, Black Americans have gained roughly seven months relative to white Americans. Another study uses geographical data from 1990 to 2018 and age-specific death rates to find that on top of cancer and homicides, HIV and fetal or infant mortality are the additional contributors to the closing of the gap in life expectancy across white and Black Americans.