New York, Chicago, and the "Black Metropolis" of the Early 20th Century

Abstract

Analyzing census data on Northern cities, this study refines the conventional view that, after the beginning of the Great Migration, the large black communities of New York and Chicago offered unparalleled opportunities for blacks. The highest levels of black participation in the creative pursuits of acting and music were in New York; and the highest levels of black participation in the business ventures of insurance, beauty culture, and retail trade were in Chicago. Yet black participation in art, medicine, the ministry, and public service was no higher in these cities than elsewhere in the urban North. The findings add nuance to the claim that Harlem and the South Side were "Black Metropolises" by suggesting that opportunities for Northern blacks to enter high-status positions in the early twentieth century were greatest in regional centers that had small black communities and small populations of white immigrants. These results therefore provide a basis for revising the conventional view of the Black Metropolis.