"Equality of Educational Opportunity," also known as the Coleman Report, sought answers to two burning questions: (1) How extensive is racial segregation within U.S. schools?; and (2) How adversely does that segregation affect educational opportunities for black students? In answering the first question, James S. Coleman and his…

Past research has shown that racial inequality in urban areas--Black and White residential segregation and economic inequality--is associated with increased levels of homicide offending and that victimization among Blacks yet serves as a protection mechanism against such violence among Whites. However, few studies have considered alternative…

America's changing color line is perhaps best expressed in shifting patterns of neighborhood residential segregation--the geographic separation of races. This research evaluates black exceptionalism by using the universe of U.S. blocks from the 1990 and 2000 decennial censuses to provide a "single" geographically inclusive national…

Background: Despite a powerful civil rights movement and legislation barring discrimination in housing markets, residential neighborhoods remain racially segregated. Purpose: This study examines the extent to which neighborhoods' racial composition is inherited across generations and the extent to which high schools' and colleges' racial…

Previous studies have shown that as the percent black or percent Hispanic grows, that group's residential segregation from whites tends to increase as well. Typically, these findings are explained in terms of white discriminatory reaction to the perceived threat associated with minority population growth. The present analysis examines whether…

For more than a century, communities across the United States legally employed strategies to create and maintain racial divides. One particularly widespread and effective practice was that of "sundown towns," which signaled to African Americans and others that they were not welcome within the city limits after dark. Though nearly 1,000…

Over 40 years ago the historic Kerner Commission Report declared that America was undergoing an urban crisis whose effects were disproportionately felt by underclass populations. In "America's Urban Crisis and the Advent of Color-blind Politics", Curtis Ivery and Joshua Bassett explore the persistence of this crisis today, despite public…

Investigating the role of preferences in causing persistent patterns of racial residential segregation in the United States has a long history. In this paper, we bring a new perspective--and new data from the 2004 Detroit Area Study--to the question of how best to characterize black and white preferences toward living in neighborhoods with people…

In Birmingham, Alabama, more all White and all Black neighborhoods were found in 1977 than in 1970. White population increased where the prospect of having Black neighbors was low and housing units were increasing in number, whereas Black population increased in neighborhoods decreasing in terms of numbers of housing units. (Author/GC)

Examines changes in patterns of Black-White housing segregation in St. Louis (Missouri) between 1980 and 1988 using data from the 1988 Dress Rehearsal Census. St. Louis exhibited a persistent pattern of segregation from 1940 to 1980. Finds the city remains quite segregated compared to 1980 national averages. (DM)

In 1979-80, residential mobility was lower among African Americans than non-African Americans after adjusting for differences in home ownership and sociodemographic characteristics. Both African-American and non-African-American mobility were influenced by life-cycle factors, housing characteristics, and metropolitan features, but African-American…

During the 1970s, most Black population growth in ten Florida cities occurred in White census tracts contiguous to tracts that were at least half-Black in 1970. Urban renewal and new public housing were influential in reducing the percentage of the Black population living in Black tracts. (Author/MJL)

Analyzes 1980 census data on racial composition of suburban portions of 11 largest metropolitan areas. Racial composition was related to individual characteristics reflecting socioeconomic status and cultural assimilation, and to group and regional characteristics. Disparities with whites were greatest for blacks, and for all minority groups were…

Analysis of 1980 and 1990 Censuses of Population and Housing for Texas found overall black-white and Anglo-Hispanic residential segregation declined substantially. Nonmetropolitan counties were more segregated than metropolitan counties in both years, but growing nonmetro places showed the greatest segregation declines. Analyses controlling for…

1980 census data for the Saint Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area indicated (1) no change in central city desegregation and only a modest decline in suburban segregation; (2) rapid Black population growth in suburbs with low segregation indexes (signifying a possible racial turnover); and (3) repetition of central city segregation patterns in the…