Urban Destination Selection among African Americans during the 1950s Great Migration

Abstract

This article examines a place utility model of how destination assets influenced inmigration for the 1950s African American urban system. Archival and historiographical data are combined with census data to conduct weighted least-squares regressions that compare economic, ethnogenic, and other place utilities. Despite declines in migrant selectivity and net southern out-migration, ethnogenic characteristics increased the size of in-migrant streams during the 1950s, net of the momentum from prior migration and, most important, net of economic and demographic place utilities. Even as several dramatic changes began or intensified during the period, ethnogenic attractions continued to shape destination selection during this “bridge” decade of civil rights–era migration.

Perceptions of Race and Region in the Black Reverse Migration to the South

“…The Great Migration transformed America's economic, social, political, and cultural landscape and was a watershed event in African Americans' history. Since the racial caste system of the South powerfully shaped Blacks' experiences during the Great Migration (Du Bois 1917; Price-Spratlen 2008; Tolnay and Beck, 1992; Wilkerson 2010), it is striking that we know little about how Blacks perceive race and region as they migrate to the present-day South. Do Black southbound migrants perceive small differences across regions in levels of racial prejudice or do they perceive they are moving to a region with markedly greater racial hostility?…”