Black Flight - History

History

In his After the Fact (1995) study, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz documented changes in a city in Morocco. As poor rural migrants moved into the center city during urbanization, the older, more established and wealthier populations moved to the outskirts. This pattern of class and education succession has been seen in United States cities, where poor immigrants and migrants have occupied older areas of affordable housing, but when economically established, they move to better areas, often in the suburbs. In recent decades, such ethnic succession seen first in center cities has been taking place in the suburbs, too.

Since the 1960s, many middle-class African Americans have been moving to the suburbs for newer housing and good schools, just as European Americans had done before them. From 1960-2000, the number of African Americans who moved to suburbs was nine million, a number considerably higher than the Great Migration of Africans from the rural South to the North during the first half of the century. As C. Hocker writes,

"The fact is African Americans desire the same things all Americans want for their families: employment opportunities with well-paying positions that can keep up with -or stay ahead of- the cost of living; the chance to own affordable homes in safe neighborhoods; quality options for educating our children; and the social and cultural amenities that make it all worthwhile. Right now, the South, more than any other region of the country, is living up to that promise."

In the last 25 years, for example, the population of Prince George's County, Maryland, where suburban housing was developed near Washington, DC, became majority African American. By 2006 it was the wealthiest majority-black county in the nation. Similar to White Americans, African Americans continue to move to more distant areas. Charles County, Maryland has become the next destination for middle-class black migrants from Washington and other areas; by 2002, the students in the school system were majority black. Charles County has the fastest-growing black population of any large county in the nation except the Atlanta suburbs. Randallstown near Baltimore has also become a majority-black suburb. Other major majority-black suburbs include Bessemer, AL, Miami Gardens, FL, Pine Hills, FL, College Park, GA, East Point, GA, Harvey, IL, Maywood, IL, Inkster, MI, Oak Park, MI, Southfield, MI, East Orange, NJ, Irvington, NJ, Orange, NJ, Plainfield, NJ, Willingboro, NJ, Hempstead, NY, Mount Vernon, NY, Forest Park, OH, Darby, PA, Rankin, PA, Wilkinsburg, PA, Yeadon, PA, and others.

In 1950 few northern cities yet had majority or near majority percentages of blacks, nor did southern ones: Washington, DC was 35 percent African American and Baltimore was 24 percent. From 1950-1970, the black population increased dramatically in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Newark, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Indianapolis. By 1960 75 percent of blacks lived in urban environments, while whites had been moving to suburbs in large numbers following WWII. Black flight has altered the hyper-urban density which had resulted from the Second Great Migration to cities from 1940–1970, with hyper-segregation in inner-city areas, such as in Chicago, St. Louis, and East St. Louis.

Job losses in former industrial cities have often pushed population out, as people migrate to other areas to find new work. In the 1950s and 1960s, numerous blacks from Chicago began to move to suburbs south of the city to improve their housing. Industry job losses hit those towns, too, and many people have left the area altogether. Chicago lost population from 1970–1990, with some increases as of the 2000 census, and decreases again from 2000-2005. Since 2000, nearly 55,000 blacks have left Chicago, although one million still live in the city. The migrants caused losses in businesses, churches, and other African-American community institutions. The concentration of poverty and deterioration of inner-city public schools in many cities also contributes to pushing black parents to move their families to suburban areas, with traditionally better funded schools. Detroit and Philadelphia are two other major industrial cities that have suffered dramatic population losses since the mid-20th century due to the loss of industrial jobs.

Reviews of the 2000 census showed that African Americans have also left New York, but continued in-migration of young whites and immigrants has appeared to stabilize the white proportion of residents. Joseph J. Salvo, director of the New York Department of City Planning’s population division, noted the diversity within the white population, as older European Americans are replaced by new immigrants, including the many Hispanics who identify as white. Similarly, black out-migration from Boston since 2000 resulted in the city's becoming majority white again by 2006. In 1970 at the peak of African-American expansion in Washington, DC, blacks comprised 70% of the capital's population. The percentage of black population has decreased significantly - to 55.6% in 2007, down nearly 8% since 2000, and much more since the 1970s.

California cities, a destination for black migrants from 1940–1970, have changed as well. The state has lost black migrants for the first time in three decades. San Francisco has had the largest decrease in black population, 23 percent from 1990 to 2000, but Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego also have had losses. In Los Angeles, the percentage of population that is black has dropped by half to 9.9% since 1970, a proportion that also reflects recent increased Hispanic and Asian immigration.

The large inner-city area of South Los Angeles offers an example of change caused by ethnic succession, where new immigrants replace former residents who move away or where an older generation is replaced by young people with children. In 1985 African Americans made up 72% of the population of the area. By 2006 the black proportion of the population had decreased to just 24%. The Latino population had risen from 21% in 1985 to 69% in 2006, as one population replaced another. From 2004-2005, Latino demand for housing caused prices to rise more than 40 percent in Watts and South Central Los Angeles.

With the reverse movement of the New Great Migration, the South has been the gaining region for black migrants coming from all three other census regions, especially from 1995-2000. The chief gaining states have been Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Maryland, Virginia and Tennessee. In the same period, Georgia, Texas and Maryland attracted the most black college graduates. Houston and Dallas center cities have lost black population as the middle class has moved to the suburbs. In a change from previous settlement patterns, new regional migrants settle directly in the suburbs, the areas of largest residential growth and often the location of jobs as well. In addition to Atlanta, the top metropolitan areas attracting African Americans include Orlando, Tampa and Miami, Florida; and Charlotte, North Carolina.