Demographic data since 1970 indicate a reversal of the centuries-long process of increasing metropolitan concentration and a sharp diminution in the flow of black migrants to large cities. To date, there is no evidence of sharp shifts in the residential isolation of blacks. (Author/AM)

In this retrospective review of demographic aspects of race and the metropolis, presented as a basis from which to speculate about the 1970's, the period of mass migration of blacks out of the rural South is seen as drawing to a close. The U.S. black population is more urban and more metropolitan than the white population. The development of black…