African-Americans are Heading South
According to census data, there's a new migration happening in the United States. African-Americans are beginning to reverse the migration of the past century or so. They're heading south.
The nation’s blacks are leaving big cities in the Northeast and Midwest at the highest levels in decades, returning to fast-growing states in the once-segregated South in search of better job opportunities and quality of life.
The Southern U.S. region — primarily metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Miami and Charlotte, N.C. — accounted for roughly 75 percent of the population gains among blacks since 2000, up from 65 percent in the 1990s, according to the latest census estimates. The gains came primarily at the expense of Northern metro areas such as New York and Chicago, which posted their first declines in black population since at least 1980.
In all, about 57 percent of U.S. blacks now live in the South, a jump from the 53 percent share in the 1970s, according to an analysis of census data by William H. Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. It was the surest sign yet of a sustained reverse migration to the South following the exodus of millions of blacks to the Midwest, Northeast and West in the Great Migration from 1910 to 1970.
"African-Americans are acting as other Americans would — searching for better economic opportunity in the Sun Belt," said Isabel Wilkerson, author of "The Warmth of Other Suns," a detailed history of the Great Migration. "But there is also a special connection. As the South becomes more in line with the rest of the country in social and political equality, many are wanting to connect with their ancestral homeland."
Three thoughts: One, this is a great example of the shattering of (mostly northern) media myths about the south. And that's a good thing. Two, this is an example of Americans voting with their feet, which is another good thing. Three, it will be interesting to watch the changes, if any, that occur in the wider south from this migration. The last Great Migration of African-Americans north gave us jazz, and eventually rock and roll.
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Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
My wife is a RN who has worked alongside Black nurses in Oakland (CA) for decades. A number of those nurses have send troubled children and grandchildren to live with relatives in the South to get them away from urban troubles. Apparently Black families in the South use more discipline and familial attention than ones in urban settings in the North and West.
The question is then whether the new returnees from the North and West will bring urban child-rearing practices with them, or will rediscover the values of their Southern relatives.
Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
The great migration of African-Americans to the San Francisco Bay Area gave us the Liberty Ships that helped win WWII and the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan that was set up to serve those shipbuilders.
In a restaurant in Oakland, in their collection of memorabilia on the wall, there's an advertising novelty postcard showing "West Oakland: Manufacturing Gateway to the Pacific." It's a perspective map of the area with the many businesses labeled, including the Key Trains to San Francisco and the famed El Rey nightclub where jazz and pop greats headlined. By the time I saw the postcard in the late 1990s, the area was the heart of the Murder Capital of the West Coast. The area wasn't much different in terms of racial mix, but something had been lost in both economic opportunity and the prevailing culture of the residents, who by the 1990s lived in fear of the gangs running the streets.
Oct '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
The migrations were based on employment opportunities in the industrionalized Northern states. These industries have been moving South since the 70s, just picking up pace. Who in their right mind would want to remain in areas of high crime and urban decay... This country is always in migratory flux..
Upsides and downsides...
May '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Fourth thought:
Cynically speaking, there's an electoral "sweet spot" for Republicans in all this: We need enough AfAms to move south to bump up southern states' electoral votes, but not so many as to put the South in play for Dems. Also, the exodus could put a redder tint to some purpley indigo northern states, while reducing their votes in the Electoral College.
It's all about politics, Rob.
Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Scott Reusser: Fourth thought:
Cynically speaking, there's an electoral "sweet spot" for Republicans in all this: We need enough AfAms to move south to bump up southern states' electoral votes, but not so many as to put the South in play for Dems. Also, the exodus could put a redder tint to some purpley indigo northern states, while reducing their votes in the Electoral College.
It's all about politics, Rob.
· Feb 16 at 11:59am
We are finding a greater number of African-Americans in the South willing to vote GOP. So one hopes that the folks making "aliyah" from the North will reacculturate to the current social reality in the South instead of bringing Northern urban societal ills with them.
May '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Scott Reusser:
Cynically speaking, there's an electoral "sweet spot" for Republicans in all this: We need enough AfAms to move south to bump up southern states' electoral votes, but not so many as to put the South in play for Dems.
True. Urban blacks are just as likely to vote Democrat here in the South as anywhere else. Sheila Jackson Lee is a clear example of why I'm happy to live outside the Houston city limits.
I've wondered many times if I should be happy or distressed by so many snowbirds moving to Texas. Look at what happened to Florida.
Jul '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
I think in the long-run this could change the electoral map slightly by giving a state like Georgia the (slim) chance of actually voting for a Democrat in a presidential race but in the short term I see this making a middle-class blue collar GOP candidate very viable in a place like Pennsylvania or even New Jersey. Which is great. I grew up in the mid-south and never even saw a black person until we moved to northern Indiana. The south still has a long way to go to integration and this could be a great step in that direction...but I have no problem crassly seeing a Republican benefit in it, too.
Jul '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
I don't know that sending young kids from Oakland to, let's say Little Rock, is an improvement. I'll match the murder rate per capita in its ghetto with Oakland's inner city or any other place you care to name.
Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Georgia voting for a Democrat in the presidential race? Check the numbers from 1976, before most Georgians realized their mistake.
In the south, I see the impact of the northern families, of all colors, on our electoral politics, just as the west sees the impacts from fleeing Californians. It's not good. They impact everything, from school boards to senate races and assimilate less well than people that are more obvious, such as those inclined towards women having to wear head scarves. All they want is our space and opportunity and they have no concept of the rot they import.
It's the division between conservative and liberal, writ small. Conservatives want small government and are reluctant to spend anymore time than necessary, dealing with something that they wish would go away. Northeners moving south jump to local politics and infest our school boards and county commissions. That just means that folks inclined toward less government have to waste time with it, just to unseat this incessant invasion of usurpers with boundless energy for telling us, "How we do it up north." We don't like them and they are cutting into our limited liesure.
And they talk funny.
Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
I think the policy is to send them to live with relatives who live out in the country, not in Southern cities.
I guess they are assuming that down South, "out in the country" is where there aren't too many opportunities to run with gangs. Here in California, "out in the country" means "where the the meth labs and pot growers hold sway."
Dec '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Do they ever have the epiphany that "how [they] do it up North" is what made up North the Hell on Earth that they moved down South to escape? And that the problem isn't in their location, but in themselves?
Jan '11
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Rob Long:
... this is a great example of the shattering of (mostly northern) media myths about the south.
Shattering? It is more like a hairline fracture.The author does not completely lay aside the myths. With that one sentence which suggests that the South is backward but gradually coming up to speed with the rest of the country (whose past is as pure as Minnesota's driven snow, of course) he reassures the reader that the myths still hold firm to some degree.
Aug '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
CJRun:
And they talk funny. · Feb 16 at 4:36pm
And there's the heart of the matter. :)
Thx CJ. Made me laugh.
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Bolivar
Rob Long:
... this is a great example of the shattering of (mostly northern) media myths about the south.
Shattering? It is more like a hairline fracture.The author does not completely lay aside the myths. With that one sentence which suggests that the South is backward but gradually coming up to speed with the rest of the country (whose past is as pure as Minnesota's driven snow, of course) he reassures the reader that the myths still hold firm to some degree. · Feb 16 at 11:58pm
Point taken. But still, it's axiomatic among northern liberals that the south is a dreadful, backward, racist place. So the migration stats of African-Americans heading back there must cause some truly puzzling cognitive dissonance for them.
Nov '10
Re: African-Americans are Heading South
Stuart Creque Do they ever have the epiphany that "how [they] do it up North" is what made up North the Hell on Earth that they moved down South to escape? And that the problem isn't in their location, but in themselves? · Feb 16 at 5:06pm
This is what we need to be focusing on concerning the black migration. Unlike a lot of the posters I don't think it's inevitable that this will turn Solid South purple. If we play our cards right and make sure the migrating blacks know why they had to leave, this could be a huge opportunity to make the black vote less monolithic. A lot of reports say that blacks are somewhat socially conservative anyway, so this is the perfect opportunity to ask them, "What have the Democrats done for you?"