Black flight

'''Black flight''' is a term applied to the [[Human migration|migration]] of [[African Americans]] from predominantly black or mixed inner-city areas in the United States to [[suburb]]s and newly constructed homes on the outer edges of cities.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.curbed.com/2018/7/31/17632092/black-chicago-neighborhood-great-migration|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180731185856/https://www.curbed.com/2018/7/31/17632092/black-chicago-neighborhood-great-migration|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 31, 2018|title=How a 'reverse Great Migration' is reshaping U.S. cities|work=Curbed|access-date=2018-10-08}}</ref> While more attention has been paid to this since the 1990s, the movement of black people to the suburbs has been underway for some time, with nine million people having migrated from 1960 to 2000.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/history/on-african-american-migrations/|title=African-American Migrations, 1600s to Present {{!}} The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross|work=The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross|access-date=2018-09-26|language=en-US}}</ref> Their goals have been similar to those of the white middle class, whose out-migration was called [[white flight]]: newer housing, better schools for their children, and attractive environments.<ref>John W. Frazier and Eugene L. Tettey-fio, ''Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America'', Global Academic Publishing, 2006, p. 85.</ref> From 1990 to 2000, the percentage of African Americans who lived in the suburbs increased to a total of 39 percent, rising 5 percentage points in that decade. Most who moved to the suburbs after [[World War II]] were middle class.<ref name="sfgov.org">[http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/mocd/Product%20I%2007-18-07.pdf Shawn A. Ginwright and Antiw Akom, "African American Outmigration Trends: Initial Scan of National and Local Trends in Migration and Research of African Americans"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080304011823/http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/mocd/Product%20I%2007-18-07.pdf |date=March 4, 2008 }}, Public Institute of San Francisco State University, for City of San Francisco, accessed March 3, 2008</ref>

Early years of residential change increased in the late 1960s after passage of [[Civil Rights Act of 1968|civil rights legislation]] ended [[Racial segregation in the United States|segregation]], and African Americans could exercise more choices in housing and jobs. Since the 1950s, a period of major restructuring of industries and loss of hundreds of thousands of industrial jobs in northeast and [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] cities began. Since the late 20th century, these events led to reduced density in formerly black neighborhoods in cities such as [[Chicago]], [[Detroit]], and [[Philadelphia]], which have also had absolute population decreases, losing white population as well.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}} Since the 2000 census, the number and proportion of black population has decreased in several major cities, including [[New York City|New York]], [[Los Angeles]], [[Atlanta]], [[Austin, Texas|Austin]], [[Cleveland]], [[Denver, Colorado|Denver]], [[Miami, Florida|Miami]], [[San Francisco]], [[Seattle]], [[St. Louis]] and [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, DC.]]<ref>[https://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-06.pdf Sonya Rastogi, Tallese D. Johnson, Elizabeth M. Hoeffel, and Malcolm P. Drewery, Jr., "The Black Population: 2010. 2010 Census Briefs"], U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, accessed July 2, 2013</ref>

In addition to moving to suburbs, since 1965 African Americans have been returning to the South in a [[New Great Migration]], especially since 1990 to the states of [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Texas]], [[Maryland]], and [[Virginia]], whose economies have expanded.<ref>[http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040524_Frey.pdf William H. Frey, "The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965-2000", The Brookings Institution, May 2004, p. 1-4] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428042235/http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040524_Frey.pdf |date=April 28, 2008 }}, accessed March 19, 2008</ref> In many cases, they are following the movement of jobs to the suburbs and the South. {{Citation needed|date= March 2011}} <ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.scrible.com/view/source/UKG214041GHSOJNO00S1431G8064M4AV:383558204/|title=Black flight|newspaper=The Economist|access-date=2018-09-12|language=en}}</ref> Because more African Americans are attaining college degrees, they are better able to find and obtain better-paying jobs and move to the suburbs.<ref name="sfgov.org"/> Most African-American migrants leaving the northern regions have gone to the "[[New South]]" states, where economies and jobs have grown from knowledge industries, services and technology.

Achieving higher education has contributed to an increase in overall [[Wealth|affluence]] within the African-American community, with increasing median income.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2015/07/31/black-flight-to-the-suburbs-on-the-rise/|title=Black flight to the suburbs on the rise|last=Frey|first=William H.|date=July 31, 2015|work=Brookings|accessdate=September 13, 2018}}</ref> According to a 2007 study, average African-American family income has increased, but the gap with white families has increased slightly.<ref>[https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna21759075 "Income gap between black, white families grows"], NBC News</ref>

==History== ===Suburban flight=== 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 to 2000, the number of African Americans who moved to suburbs was nine million,<ref name="sfgov.org"/> a number considerably higher than the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration]] of African-Americans from the rural South to the North during the first half of the century. As C. Hocker writes, <blockquote>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.<ref name="sfgov.org"/></blockquote>

====By city==== In the last 25 years, for example, the population of [[Prince George's County, Maryland]], where suburban housing was developed near [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, DC]], became majority African American. By 2006 it was the wealthiest majority-black county in the nation.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-153305126.html "America's wealthiest black county. (Prince George's County, Maryland)"], ''Encyclopedia''. Accessed March 1, 2008.</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100200975.html "Charles County Schools Are Now Majority Black"], ''Washington Post'', July 10, 2002. Accessed March 1, 2008.</ref> [[Randallstown, Maryland|Randallstown]] near [[Baltimore]] has also become a majority-black suburb. Other major majority-black suburbs include localities around: [[Metro Atlanta|Atlanta]] ([[College Park, Georgia|College Park]], [[East Point, Georgia|East Point]]); [[Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama|Birmingham]] [[Bessemer, Alabama|(Bessemer)]]; [[Chicago metropolitan area|Chicago]] ([[Harvey, Illinois|Harvey]], [[Matteson, Illinois|Matteson]], [[Maywood, Illinois|Maywood]], [[Merrillville, Indiana|Merrillville]], [[Robbins, Illinois|Robbins]]); [[Cincinnati metropolitan area|Cincinnati]] ([[Forest Park, Ohio|Forest Park]]); [[Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex|Dallas]] ([[DeSoto, Texas|Desoto]], [[Glenn Heights, Texas|Glenn Heights]], [[Lancaster, Texas|Lancaster]]); [[Metro Detroit|Detroit]] ([[Eastpointe, Michigan|Eastpointe]], [[Harper Woods, Michigan|Harper Woods]], [[Inkster, Michigan|Inkster]], [[Oak Park, Michigan|Oak Park]], [[Southfield, Michigan|Southfield]]); [[Greater Houston|Houston]] ([[Missouri City, Texas|Missouri City]]); [[Greater Los Angeles|Los Angeles]] ([[Ladera Heights, California|Ladera Heights]], [[View Park–Windsor Hills, California|View Park-Windsor Hills]]); [[Miami metropolitan area|Miami]] ([[Miami Gardens, Florida|Miami Gardens]]); [[New York metropolitan area|New York City]] ([[Hempstead (village), New York|Hempstead]], [[Mount Vernon, New York|Mount Vernon]], [[Roosevelt, New York|Roosevelt]], [[Wyandanch, New York|Wyandanch]]); [[Gateway Region|Newark]] ([[East Orange, New Jersey|East Orange]], [[Irvington, New Jersey|Irvington]], [[Orange, New Jersey|Orange]], [[Plainfield, New Jersey|Plainfield]]); [[Greater Orlando|Orlando]] ([[Pine Hills, Florida|Pine Hills]]); [[Philadelphia metropolitan area|Philadelphia]] ([[Darby, Pennsylvania|Darby]], [[Willingboro Township, New Jersey|Willingboro]], [[Yeadon, Pennsylvania|Yeadon]]); [[Greater Pittsburgh|Pittsburgh]] ([[Rankin, Pennsylvania|Rankin]], [[Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania|Wilkinsburg]]); [[Greater St. Louis|Saint Louis]] ([[Berkeley, Missouri|Berkeley]], [[Ferguson, Missouri|Ferguson]], [[Kinloch, Missouri|Kinloch]]); among others.<ref>[[List of U.S. cities with African American majority populations]]</ref>

In 1950 few northern cities yet had majority or near majority percentages of black people, nor did southern ones: [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, DC]] was 35 percent African American and [[Baltimore]] was 40 percent. From 1950 to 1970, the black population increased dramatically in [[Philadelphia]], [[Pittsburgh]], [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]], [[Chicago]], [[Detroit]], [[Cleveland]], [[St. Louis]], [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]], [[Cincinnati]] and [[Indianapolis]]. By 1960, 75 percent of black persons lived in urban environments, while white people had been moving to suburbs in large numbers following WWII. Black flight has altered the hyper-urban density that had resulted from the [[Second Great Migration (African American)|Second Great Migration]] to cities (1940–70), with hyper-segregation in inner-city areas, such as in Chicago, St. Louis, and [[East St. Louis, Illinois|East St. Louis]].<ref>John W. Frazier and Eugene L. Tettey-fio, ''Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America'', Global Academic Publishing, 2006, pp. 74 and 85</ref>

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 black people 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.<ref>[http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/27.html "African Americans"], ''Encyclopedia of Chicago''. Accessed March 1, 2008.</ref> Chicago lost population from 1970 to 1990, with some increases as of the 2000 census, and decreases again from 2000 to 2005.<ref>Gibson, Campbell (June 1998). [https://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070314031958/http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027.html |date=March 14, 2007 }}, ''U.S. Bureau of the Census - Population Division'', accessed March 1, 2008.</ref> Since 2000, nearly 55,000 black people have left Chicago, although one million still live in the city.<ref name="usatoday.com">John Ritter, "San Francisco Hopes to Reverse Black Flight", ''USA Today'', accessed April 20, 2011</ref> 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 historically 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. {{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

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 White 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.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/12/nyregion/12census.html|title=Census Shows More Black Residents Are Leaving New York and Other Cities|author=Sam Roberts|newspaper=New York Times|date=September 12, 2007| accessdate= April 21, 2011}}</ref> In 1970 at the peak of African-American expansion in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington, DC]], black people comprised 70% of the capital's population.<ref>News Hound, "Major US Cities Rapidly Losing Black Population", ''Black Society'', September 28, 2008, accessed November 18, 2008</ref> The percentage of black population has decreased significantly - to 55.6% in 2007, down nearly 8% since 2000, and much more since the 1970s.<ref name="dc_demographic_data">{{cite web |url=http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US11&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP5&-context=adp&-ds_name=&-tree_id=307&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format= |title=District of Columbia Fact Sheet 2007 |accessdate=November 2, 2008 |year=2008 |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |archive-url=https://archive.today/20200211182303/http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ADPTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US11&-qr_name=ACS_2007_1YR_G00_DP5&-context=adp&-ds_name=&-tree_id=307&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-format= |archive-date=February 11, 2020 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

California cities, a destination for black migrants from 1940 to 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,<ref name="sfgov.org"/> 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 [[Asia]]n immigration.<ref name="usatoday.com"/>

The large [[Inner city|inner-city]] area of [[South Los Angeles]] offers an example of change caused by [[Ethnic succession theory|ethnic succession]], where new immigrants replace former residents who move away or where an older generation is replaced by young people with children. This also often occurs because African Americans have emulated the white flight of their European American counterparts and move to the outer sections of the Greater Los Angeles areas to escape the ever-increasing Hispanic population. 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 46%. The [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino]] population had risen from 21% in 1985 to 51% in 2006, as one population replaced another. From 2004 to 2005, Latino demand for housing caused prices to rise more than 40 percent in Watts and South Central Los Angeles.<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-oct-16-re-watts16-story.html Pollard-Terry, Gayle. "Where It's Booming: Watts"], ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', October 16, 2005. p. E-1.</ref>

===New Great Migration=== 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 to 2000. The chief gaining states have been [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], [[Texas]], [[North Carolina]], [[Florida]], [[Maryland]], [[Virginia]] and [[Tennessee]]. In the same period, Georgia, Texas and Maryland attracted the most black college graduates. Atlanta, Dallas, and Houston have the highest increase of African Americans respectively. Several smaller metro areas also saw sizable gains, including San Antonio;<ref name="expressnews.com">{{Cite news|date=2021-08-13|title=Latinos, Blacks Show Strong Growth in San Antonio as White Population Declines|newspaper=San Antonio Express-News |url=https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Latinos-Black-communities-grow-in-San-Antonio-16385595.php |last1=O'Hare |first1=By Peggy }}</ref> Raleigh and Greensboro, N.C.; and Orlando.<ref>Felton Emmanuel (January 2022). "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/14/black-migration-south//still-looking-for-a-‘Black-mecca,’ New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are becoming less Black as African Americans leave the cities that drew their elders]". [[Washington Post]]. washingtonpost.com. Retrieved January  14, 2022.</ref> 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.<ref name="auto">[http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040524_Frey.pdf William H. Frey, "The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965-2000", The Brookings Institution, May 2004, pp.1-3] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428042235/http://www.brookings.edu/urban/pubs/20040524_Frey.pdf |date=April 28, 2008 }}, accessed March 19, 2008.</ref> In addition to Atlanta, the top metropolitan areas attracting African Americans include [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]], [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], [[Dallas, Texas|Dallas]], [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]], [[Washington, D.C.]], [[Tampa, Florida|Tampa]], [[Virginia Beach, Virginia|Virginia Beach]], [[San Antonio, Texas|San Antonio]], [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], [[Orlando, Florida|Orlando]], [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville]], [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]], and so forth.<ref name="auto"/><ref>John W. Frazier and Eugene L. Tettey-fio, ''Race, Ethnicity, and Place in a Changing America'', Global Academic Publishing, 2006, p. 78.</ref>

== Phenomena == ===Economic disparities=== The economic disparities between some classes of European Americans and African Americans have diminished. Black Americans today{{When|date=May 2025}} have a median income level much higher than they did in the 1990 [[census]] and as compared to the 2000 census, after [[inflation]] is considered. African Americans occupy a higher percentage of high-paying jobs within the USA than they used to. This has led to a rapidly increasing [[African-American middle class|black middle class]]. Many of United States suburbs are becoming diversified with black and white residents coexisting in [[Wealth|affluent]] neighborhoods{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}. With the economic division within similar classes declining between races, African-American movement to the suburbs has resulted in some suburbs becoming more diverse.

The extent to which increased economic prosperity among African Americans has led to integration among white people and black people is debatable. Some scholars suggest that the narrowing economic divide is helping the US to become an increasingly "color-blind" society, but others note the ''de facto'' segregation in many residential areas and continuing social discrimination.<ref>Mary Pattillo-McCoy's ''Black Picket Fences: Privilege and Peril among the Black Middle Class'' (University of Chicago Press, 1999).</ref>

=== Inner-city home value appreciation === In other instances, longtime black homeowners in central city areas have "cashed out" at retirement age and profited from increasing home values. These longtime residents have relocated to more affordable condominiums in outlying suburban areas, or in other regions altogether.<ref name="usatoday.com"/>

=== School shifts === The term "black flight" has also been used to describe African-American parents in some cities moving their children from public schools to [[charter school]]s or suburban schools featuring open enrollment. This has taken place in a variety of places, including [[Minneapolis–Saint Paul|the Twin Cities]]<ref>[http://www.opinionjournal.com/cc/?id=110008032 Katherine Kesteren, "Opinion: Black Flight: The Exodus to Charter Schools"], ''Wall Street Journal'', March 4, 2006.</ref> and the [[Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex|Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex]]. Other issues in the city proper of Dallas include an increase in immigration of Latinos. In the 1980s and 1990s, the school district had a majority of black students. Today it has a preponderance of [[Hispanic and Latino Americans|Latino]] students, in a kind of [[Ethnic succession theory|ethnic succession]] that reflects residential changes in the city. Latinos constitute 68 percent of students, while black people are 26 percent, and whites are 5 percent. In addition, 87 percent of the Latino students qualify as "economically disadvantaged," and many are just learning English. Middle-class black people are moving to suburbs in a repetition of earlier migration of middle-class whites. The issues of schools and residential patterns are strongly related to economic class, as well as parents' preferring that their children go to schools with native speakers of English.<ref>[http://www.dallasnews.com/news/education/headlines/20100609-black-flight_changing-the-makeup-of-dallas-schools.ece Holly K. Hacker and Tawnell D. Hobbs, "'Black flight' changing the makeup of Dallas schools"], ''The Dallas Morning News'', June 9, 2010, accessed April 21, 2011.</ref>

== See also == {{Portal|United States}} * [[Gentrification]] * [[Historic preservation]] * [[Mortgage discrimination]] * [[Municipal disinvestment|Planned shrinkage]] * [[Redlining]] * [[Urban decay]] * [[The Boondocks (2005 TV series)|''The Boondocks'' (TV series)]]

==References==  {{Reflist|30em}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2016}}

==Further reading== *C. Hocker, ''Migration in Reverse'', 2007 *Andrew Wiese, ''Places of Their Own: African American Suburbanization in the Twentieth Century'', [[University of Chicago Press]], 2003

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Flight}} [[Category:African-American demographics]] [[Category:Demographic history of the United States]] [[Category:Human migration]] [[Category:African-American segregation in the United States]] [[Category:Urban planning in the United States]] [[Category:Urban decay in the United States]] [[Category:Internal migration]] [[Category:Suburban culture]]