The widely held proposition that the racial composition of schools is a reflection of the racial composition of residential neighborhoods has been taken for granted. This paper tests the link made between these two by using a data set for selected school districts in California that links pupil enrollment data for public elementary schools to 1970…

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…

The inconsistency in research investigations of the process of white flight is especially evident when social scientists become actors in the legal drama surrounding the desegregation of public schools. Social science "experts" for the contending litigants often present contradictory evidence. The resultant ambiguity allows judges and…