Urban Areas in the Transformation of the South: A Review of Modern History

Abstract

Since the 1940s, the southern US has been transformed from a region of backward agriculture, low-wage industries located in small towns and rural areas, and unrelenting racial segregation into a modern society and economy. In 1950, there were no metropolitan areas in the South with a population of one million or more, but 18 had populations in excess of one million in 2000. The populations of the Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and Miami metropolitan areas grew to over 4 millions. Population growth in the 18 largest metropolitan areas accounts for 63% of the total population growth in the South from 1950 to 2000. The transformation of the South is, to a sizable extent, a transformation to an urbanized society. This paper documents this urbanization by examining population and employment growth in those 18 metropolitan areas.

The Impact of Region and Urbanicity on the Discrimination-Cognitive Health Link Among Older Blacks

“…The South region of the U.S. tends to be less urbanized than the North (McDonald, 2013). Given that both South vs. North and urban vs. non-urban living environments tend to be associated with differences in cognitive health outcomes, it is likely that regional and nonurban (versus urban) differences together play a role in shaping cognitive health outcomes among older Blacks in the U.S.…”

Toward a New Rural Typology: Mapping Resources, Opportunities, and Challenges

“…Statically, the United States covers roughly 3.8 million square miles of diverse geography, which includes varied climates and terrain (Hersey & Steinberg, 2019). Dynamically, U.S. urban areas in the have been rapidly transforming and evolving in recent years (Badger & Bui, 2019; McDonald, 2013). For most of its history, the United States has been a predominately rural country; it was not until the mid-1800s to the early 20th century that settlement patterns started to shift in response to an increasingly urban-oriented economy (Housing Assistance Council, 2011; Vacchiani-Marcuzzo et al, 2018).…”