Growth Of Black Population Research Articles

Underestimating Racism? Decoupling Race and Redlining

A rapidly expanding body of research has sought to connect the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation’s (HOLC) so-called redlining maps to a wide array of present-day social injustices. The assertion is that these maps helped entrench emerging cogeographies of racial segregation and devaluation that have continued to reproduce racial-spatial inequities through time. We argue that such arguments likely underestimate the ongoing power of racism by narrowly focusing on the map grades rather than on racial segregation itself. To investigate this possibility, we conduct a set of statistical analyses that decouple race from redlining. These analyses produce two main findings. First, postwar Black population growth did not occur in all HOLC redlined neighborhoods evenly but was most concentrated in those areas that either had an initial Black population or that were adjacent to them. Second, whereas HOLC grade was a stronger predictor of neighborhood home values than Black population share until about 1970, the latter has become the more salient factor since. Thus, rather than obliquely highlighting the persistent geographies of racialized devaluation by way of the HOLC grades, researchers should instead focus on the racially uneven geographies of value directly.

The Race to Exclude: Residential Growth Controls in California Cities, 1970–1992

Local regulations that restrict residential growth are a key driver of California’s affordable housing crisis. Scholars have argued these growth controls were implemented in the late 20th century by cities intending to exclude Black households. However, growth controls may also have plausibly been driven by a desire to exclude growing Hispanic, Asian, and foreign-born populations; by increased concern about the negative environmental consequences of population growth; or by homeowners’ or cities’ fiscal motivations. I jointly test these competing explanations using time-varying data on the adoption of a variety of residential growth controls covering California cities from 1970 to 1992. I find that, all else equal, cities with a lower share of Black residents—both in absolute terms, and relative to their metropolitan area—were more likely to pass residential growth controls. I also find some evidence that growth controls were more likely to be passed in areas experiencing greater Black population growth and in cities more supportive of White-Black segregation. Finally, I find strong evidence that, net of other factors, cities in areas more supportive of policies to protect the environment were more likely to pass residential growth controls.

Banished from Johnstown: Racist Backlash in Pennsylvania

Banished from Johnstown: Racist Backlash in Pennsylvania

Fragmentation or Diversification? Ethnoracial Change and the Social and Economic Heterogeneity of Places.

Our study investigates the diversification and fragmentation theses, fueled by claims that greater diversity is reshaping the social fabric of American life and that the United States is an increasingly fragmented nation. We take a multidimensional view of heterogeneity that considers whether growing ethnoracial diversity within U.S. communities (i.e., incorporated and unincorporated places) has resulted in the consolidation or differentiation of demographic, sociocultural, and economic distinctions between 1980 and 2010. As communities have become more ethnoracially diverse, they have become more heterogeneous in language and nativity-two characteristics tied closely to Latino and Asian population growth. However, ethnoracial diversity within communities is only weakly associated with household, age, educational, occupational, or income heterogeneity despite large racial/ethnic differences in these characteristics nationally. This trend does not apply to all forms of ethnoracial diversity equally: Hispanic and especially Asian population growth is more likely to generate community sociodemographic and economic heterogeneity than is black population growth. Consistent with the fragmentation hypothesis, we also find that broader geographic context matters, with more ethnoracially diverse metropolitan and micropolitan areas experiencing reduced social and economic heterogeneity inside their constituent places. We conclude by discussing the social implications of these patterns for intergroup relations, spatial exclusion, and ethnoracial inequality.

Protecting the Right to Discriminate: The Second Great Migration and Racial Threat in the American West

Taking advantage of a unique event in American history, the Second Great Migration, we explore whether the rapid entry of African Americans into nearly exclusively White contexts triggered “racial threat” in White voting behavior in the state of California. Utilizing historical administrative data, we find that increasing proximity to previously White areas experiencing drastic Black population growth between 1940 to 1960 is associated with significant increases in aggregate White voter support for a highly racially-charged ballot measure, Proposition 14, which legally protected racial discrimination in housing. Importantly, we find that this result holds when restricting the analysis to all-White areas with high rates of residential tenure and low rates of White population growth. These latter findings indicate that this relationship materializes in contexts where a larger share of White voters were present during the treatment and exercised residential-choice before the treatment commenced, which is suggestive of a causal effect.

Strain, ethnic competition, and power devaluation: white supremacist protest in the U.S., 1948–1997

Many Western democracies have seen an increase in extreme right mobilization over the past several decades but extreme right mobilization is not a new phenomenon when we look historically. In this paper, we examine fifty years of white supremacist protest in the United States to help shed light on the factors that explain variation in levels of right-wing mobilization. Using annual time-series analysis, we find that traditional strain explanations do not explain these protests but that threats to the traditional economic, political, and social power of whites were critical. Ethnic competition associated with black population growth and political threats stemming from the political power of northern Democrats, a divided federal government, and civil rights protest stimulated this mobilization. These findings support a broadened ethnic competition/power devaluation model of right-wing mobilization that emphasizes the mobilizing effects of economic and political threats to a relatively advantaged group.

Bicultural Socialization Experiences of Black Immigrant Students at a Predominantly White Institution

Although in recent decades Hispanic and Asian immigrants have comprised the majority of the immigrant population in the United States, the number of Black immigrants, mostly from Africa and the Caribbean, has more than doubled over the last two decades (Capps, McCabe, & Fix, 2011). In this article, the term 'Black immigrants' refers to foreign-bom individuals who have moved to the United States with the intention of establishing permanent residency as a naturalized citizen or permanent resident, and 'Black Americans' refer to U.S.-bom African Americans. Black international students, studying in the U.S. with a temporary student visa and intending to return to their country of origin, are excluded from the Black immigrant population. Black immigrants accounted for 8.5% of the immigrant population in 2009 and contributed to at least 20% of the U.S. Black population growth between 2001 and 2006 (Kent, 2007). The Black immigrant population grew by 34% between 2000 and 2009 as the total immigrant population rose by 23% (Capps et al., 2011). According to the U.S. Department ofEducation (2012), about 15% of all Black undergraduate students enrolled at U.S. postsecondary institutions in 2007-2008 were immigrants. Despite the increasing presence of Black immigrant students on college campuses, these students and their educational experiences are often overlooked because they are lumped in with those of Black/African American students. In response to such oversights, this qualitative study aims to explore how Black immigrant students negotiate the challenge of adjusting to a predominantly White institution (PWI), identifying sources of support that may help these students make academic and social connections within the establishment.REVIEW OF LITERATUREDespite limited research on Black immigrants' college enrollment experiences and levels of academic success, there have been some recent studies documenting differences in educational outcomes between Black immigrants and African Americans. Based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Freshmen (NLSF) from 28 selective colleges and universities across the country, Massey and colleagues (2007) found that Black freshmen with an immigrant background represented more than one-quarter of Black student enrollment at the most selective institutions in the United States. Their study also suggested that Black students with immigrant origin fared better and were more likely to gain access to higher education than their African American counterparts. Additionally, the study indicated that a larger proportion (56.9%) of Black immigrant freshmen came from a two- parent family compared with 51.4% of African Americans; 70% of immigrant students' fathers had a college education while only 55.2% of the fathers of African Americans were similarly educated. These findings resonate with the increased attention paid to the presence of Black immigrant students on selective college campuses, as illustrated in the New York Times article 'Top Colleges Take More Blacks, But Which Ones? (Rimer & Arenson, 2004) However, while Black immigrants are more likely than African Americans to attend selective four-year institutions, Massey and his associates did not distinguish foreign-bom Black immigrants from second-generation immigrants (U.S.-bom with immigrant parents), and therefore failed to capture the nuanced educational experiences of Black immigrant students and the diverse educational challenges they encounter.In an attempt to differentiate between immigrant Blacks and native-born Blacks using data from NELS: 88, a nationally representative sample, Bennett and Lutz (2009) found that regardless of institution type (two-year, non-selective four-year, historically Black colleges and universities [HBCUs], selective four-year), 75.1% of immigrant Blacks in the sample had attended college by 1994, compared with 60.2% native-born Blacks and 72.5% Whites. Confirming findings from a study by Massey and associates, they observed that the chance of immigrant Blacks attending selective four-year colleges was markedly higher than that of native-born Blacks. …

African Americans' Search for "More for Less" and "Peace of Mind" on the Exurban Frontier

African Americans increasingly are moving from inner cities and inner-ring suburbs to fast-growing exurbs on the urban fringe, trends that media reports attribute primarily to their desire to live affordably as homeowners in safer communities. Little empirical evidence exists to support these claims, although research on the drivers of postwar black suburbanization and a burgeoning exurban migration literature suggest that desires for ownership and housing space, to escape inner-city poverty concentration, and to create "places of their own" may be contributing factors. Through interviews with 70 African Americans who moved from Los Angeles County to its fast growing exurban Inland Empire between 1980 and 2010, this research shows how race- and context-specific factors, such as affordable housing shortages, gang violence, and Latino occupancy of historically black communities, are contributing to black population growth on the urban fringe.

Die enigma van Hendrik Verwoerd: `n Akademikus in die politiek

Hendrik Verwoerd, one of the main architects of “Bantu education “and the idea of independent Bantu homelands, is one of the most controversial politcians in South Africa. Hailed and almost venerated by his supporters, he was seen by Albert Luthuli and other African nationalists as the architect of their “calamity”. In popular journalism he has been likened to Adolf Hitler and Robert Mugabe. Yet Verwoerd was no conventional racist. Recent reseach has shown that as a Stellenbosch lecturer he rejected the theory that some races were genetically and biologically superior to others. When he went abroad he was not attracted to Nazi thinking but by the ideas of American social scientists who advocated “social engineering” to avoid future conflicts. His main aim in introducing Bantu education in 1954 was to expand mass education on a primary level and to deflect black job aspirations from the cities to the homelands. His plan to impose a rigid form of apartheid was ultimately thwarted by high economic growth and much more rapid black population growth than had been anticipated.

Children in European systems of slavery: Introduction

This special edition on children in western systems of slavery1 follows last year's special edition of Slavery & Abolition on women in western systems of slavery in moving beyond the conventional t...

Slavery Overshadowed: Congress Debates Prohibiting the Atlantic Slave Trade to the United States, 1806-1807

In December 1806, as Ninth Congress of United States convened in its second session, rumors of a frightful conspiracy in West circulated about Washington. The reports in following months implicated Aaron Burr, past vice president of United States (from 1801 to 1805) but already notorious, in part for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, as leader of plot. Over next several weeks, Americans in all regions read with great interest further details of Burr's alleged plans to stir southwestern states and territories to fight for independence from United States, aided by a foreign power such as Great Britain or Spain. At same time, press and word of mouth brought tidings of Napoleon's invasion of Prussia. In next few months Americans learned of Napoleon's Berlin Decree, announcing a blockade of Great Britain in retaliation for Britain's Orders in Council that had first proclaimed a blockade around Continent. Congressmen that winter debated bills of great importance, but their words drew less attention than developments in West and in Europe. One of those bills would prohibit importation of slaves into United States after January 1, 1808. This act, signed into law at end of session, had a great impact on American history.1 Yet Americans in 1806 and 1807 paid little attention to these historic debates, distracted as they were by doings of Burr and Napoleon. Their distraction tells us more about nature of early sectionalism and perception of other dangers in new Republic than does rhetoric ringing through halls of Congress.2 William Freehling, in his recent account of growth of America's sectional crisis, places end of African slave trade near heart of his interpretation. For Freehling, other early action so shaped later slavery controversy as did slave trade proscription. The restriction reduced black population growth in South, he argues, and thus diminished that section's representation in national government. The ban meant that states such as Kentucky and Missouri would face a permanent shortage of slave labor; that Virginia and Maryland would continue to be whitened as they exported excess slaves to Deep South; and that Old Northwest never would develop a slave system. As a result Border South would be less committed to slavery than Deep South, and Northwest would not be committed at all. For Freehling, the closure of African slave trade was probably most important slavery legislation Congress ever passed and among most important American laws on any subject.3 Freehling makes a powerful case for significance of effects of bill, but there is more to it than he recognizes, for debates leading to its passage themselves reveal depth of sectional feeling attached to slavery. Yet historians have devoted very little attention to legislative history of slave trade ban and even less to responses to bill outside of Congress. The congressional slave trade disputes of 1806-1807 exposed a dangerous form of American sectionalism and a willingness to tap its rhetoric. There was broad support from all regions for proscribing slave trade, but crafting of measure was riddled with sharp and revealing disputes in which feeling ran high between North and South. What was said in these debates, though not widely scrutinized at time, foreshadowed danger of engaging slavery question. According to Constitution, Congress could not prohibit foreign slave trade before year 1808, although it could impose a duty of up to ten dollars on each slave imported (Article I, Section 9). This controversial clause provoked emotional arguments during ratification debates, especially in North. From Massachusetts to Virginia, advocates of Constitution who opposed slave trade looked with hope to this provision: after all, Articles of Confederation set no date at which Congress could legislate in this area. …

Race and Violent Crime in the Suburbs

We examine the effects of racial composition on crime rates but we give equal weight to the opposite causal order--the violent crime rate itself could cause a change in racial composition. The authors test the hypothesis using data a national sample of [U.S.] suburbs for the period 1970 to 1990. We find significant and approximately equal causal effects in both directions; specifically it is the robbery component of crime that affects racial composition. High robbery rates are associated with black population growth while stimulating white flight. (EXCERPT)

Segregation in the Second Ghetto: Racial and Ethnic Segregation in American Public Housing, 1977

Case studies suggest that public housing is highly segregated by race and ethnicity, but this conclusion has not been verified on a broad sample of metropolitan areas. In this article, we use administrative data gathered from local housing authorities in 1977 by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Employing standard indices, we measure the degree of segregation in public housing projects classified by ownership status (authority-owned vs. privately subsidized) and design (family vs. elderly). We find that elderly and subsidized projects are largely white whereas family and authority-owned projects are predominantly minority. Patterns for specific SMSAs suggest that black-white segregation is very high and is determined primarily by the rate of black population growth.

The effect of structural and demographic change on urban residential segregation

The factors responsible for observed increases in urban residential segregation by race in the United States during the 1960s are examined. Changes in residential segregation between 1960 and 1970 are decomposed to identify both changes resulting from the structural parameters of the segregation model used and changes resulting from socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the metropolitan area. The results suggest that potential declines in segregation resulting from black gains in the labor market are negated by black population growth and continued suburbanization.

Changing distribution of the black population: Florida cities, 1970-1980.

Ten Florida Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas were chosen to ascertain the degree blacks were able, during the 1970s, to change their geographical distribution with regard to whites. It was found that most black population growth during the decade took place within white census tracts contiguous to tracts that were at least half black in 1970. By 1980, many of these tracts had acquired a black majority. Very little black population growth took place in white tracts distant from established black neighborhoods.

Metropolitan Housing Segregation in 1980

Metropolitan patterns of black/white housing segregation are analyzed through the 1980 census data for the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Using the index of dissimilarity as an indicator of segregation, it was found that there was no change in central city segregation, and only a modest decline in suburban segregation. Analysis of segregation within incorporated places revealed that most of the area's population lived in racially homogeneous or internally segregated communities, and that virtually all racially mixed suburbs away from the major sector of black population were highly segregated. It was found that most of the suburbs that did have low segregation indices were experiencing rapid black population growth, and thus may have been experiencing racial turnover. It is concluded that patterns of segregation which have historically existed in the central city are now being repeated in the suburbs.

A Research Note on Residential Succession: The Hispanic Case

Sociologists have long held that residential segregation results from an underlying process of ecological succession. According to the ecological model, residential succession begins with the entry of a minority group into some area occupied by majority members. Following invasion, there is a period of consolidation during which the population of original inhabitants declines while that of the incoming minority grows. Eventually the invading minority displaces former residents entirely to form an established ethnic neighborhood. This model has been applied with great success to depict the dynamics of black-white segregation in U.S. cities. Given rapid rates of black population growth and a slowly growing white population, residential succession predominates to the point that each interracial area can be classified according to its stage in the succession process. Although the ecological model was originally formulated with ethnic immigrants in mind, it has never been directly applied to such groups. This paper directly examines residential succession for one large ethnic group, Hispanics, and contrasts patterns with those observed for blacks.

INTEGRATION MANAGEMENT: MUNICIPAL CONSTRAINTS ON RESIDENTIAL MOBILITY

The concentration of recent suburban black population growth in relatively few suburban municipalities is prompting such communities to institutionalize integration management through local ordinances. A national survey reveals four categories of municipal integration management activities: controlling real estate brokers, preventing white flight, attracting new white residents, and monitoring black concentrations. Proponents justify such programs as necessary for stable residential integration. Analysis of congressional debate, case law, and constitutional law suggests, however, that integration management as currently practiced constitutes a constraint on equal housing access rather than a guarantee of fair housing as claimed. Integration management founders on the definitional ambiguity of integration, the inadequacy of the tipping point premise, the inapplicability of an affirmative action analogy, and the implicit stigmatization of black homeseekers. The implications of institutionalized integration ...

Racial Succession in New York City, 1960-70

The initiation of racial succession in high density areas of New York City was led by blacks with above average educational attainments. Home buyers and renters who initiated succession in areas distant from black ghettos tended to be older and had higher incomes than invaders of ghetto-adjacent areas. Post-invasion black population growth in high density areas was accompanied by increases in median black family incomes. However, after blacks comprised approximately 24 percent of a high density tract's population, additional growth brought relative declines in black income levels. In contrast, median incomes for blacks in low density areas of the city tended to increase during all stages of succession. The inner portions of our nation's cities have regularly served as areas of first settlement for immigrant groups. Inmigrant blacks from rural areas of the South, like European immigrants before them, typically settled in segregated enclaves close to the centers of cities. These initial settlements tended to grow through successive invasions of adjoining areas; and resulting out-movements of white residents enabled further extensions of existing black ghettos. Consequently, the intracity residential mobility of blacks did not significantly alter traditional patterns of racial segregation. There have even been indications that racial segregation within many cities has increased since 1960 (Clemence; Farley and Taeuber; Van Valey et al.). Nevertheless, factors such as the accelerated movement of whites to suburbs, improvements in the economic status of blacks, and more stringent enforcement of open housing laws have enabled an increasing number of blacks to enter white residential areas that are relatively distant from both the centers of cities and areas of black concentration. Does this movement indicate the beginning of integration or, as has typically been the case in areas adjacent to black ghettos, the initial stage of a total change in population type? Are previous findings and theories concerning invasion *1 am indebted to Kirsten A. Gr0nbjerg for help provided during all stages of the research, and to Gerald D. Suttles, 0. Andrew Collver, Kurt Lang, Judith L. Denowitz, Barbara Beno, and Robert Stevenson for comments on earlier drafts. ( 1980 The University of North Carolina Press. 0037-7732/80/020440-55$01.60

Trends in residential segregation by race: 1960–1970

The study examines trends in the level of residential segregation by race in U.S. metropolitan areas. It finds that the majority of housing markets experienced an increase in segregation between 1960 and 1970. Established racial patterns were typically maintained, with black population growth accommodated by the peripheral expansion of minority areas. This general pattern of development occurred in both high- and low-income neighborhoods, and typically left the average black with fewer whites as neighbors. Although the average white was at the same time exposed to a slightly higher proportion of blacks, the vast majority of urban whites continued to live in racially segregated neighborhoods.