Birmingham, like many cities, is losing its White middle class and is pressed to provide services for those who remain. The city's survival will depend on meeting specific educational goals. The mayor would welcome a Democratic president whose policies would focus on cities. (DM)

Although the United States has been described as a nation of homeowners, homeownership is not uniformly distributed across population groups. The migration of individuals to Houston, Texas, has intensified the competition for decent housing in that city. The rapid population growth has also accelerated the competition between lower and…

Explanations for growth beyond central city borders are examined. Presented is a general overview of the confrontation between conventional and critical urban theory. (Author/RM)

Five books dealing with the suburbs are reviewed in this essay on suburbanization. Topics include demographic trends, suburban social life, government and social policy, and racial and economic integration. (Author/RLV)

Examined mass media coverage of research conducted in 1975 by James S. Coleman and others, which suggested that court ordered busing caused increased White flight, thus promoting greater residential segregation. Found that the White flight thesis was reported as a scientifically documented fact, despite the unavailability of published evidence and…

This article reviews the housing situation in Washington, D.C., from 1954 to the present. Statistics show the intensity of White flight from the inner city to the suburbs from 1960 to 1970. The effects of the subsequent return of Whites to the inner city, a reverse trend beginning in 1975, are discussed. (MC)

Factors involved in the determination of White attitudes toward busing are discussed. The term White flight is considered a euphemism for the process in which the responsibility for housing discrimination is shifted from the structure of the capitalist system to White community residents. (RLV)

Suburban migration has been seen as a means of improving one's standard of living; the high quality of education in suburbia was believed to be one way of achieving this improvement. However, it appears that the suburbanites' belief in the American dream and their support of the educational system have cooled. Dissatisfaction among middle class…

Criticizes current research for equating declining urban school enrollments with White flight. Describes a study conducted in Louisville (Jefferson County), Kentucky, in which birth rate decline and ongoing out-migration variables were considered. Shows that many White families, rather than leaving the community, actually transferred their…

The urban Black underclass can be traced to the sharecropper South of a generation ago. The propagation of underclass culture has been hastened by an exodus of working class Blacks from the ghettos. Interviews with urban and rural Blacks help identify the problems of the underclass. (Author)

The problems that now seem overbearing in the ghettos--out of wedlock childbearing, unemployment, crime, poor educational achievement--have existed in the ghettos for more than half a century. Anecdotal material from a Chicago project highlight these conditions. Federal efforts must focus on helping individuals to escape. (Author)

Reports that movement of people into Houston has intensified demand for housing and that middle-class residents compete for housing with lower-income people in the inner city. Shows that segregated housing patterns and inadequate dwellings prevail and that the need for public housing exceeds the supply. (Author/WP)

The context and effects of desegregation on the racial composition of school districts are described with the characteristics and causes of White flight from the schools involved. Federal and state policy options are presented in terms of desegregation plan design, public information needs, metropolitan-wide programs and incentives for voluntary,…

Displacement has a long history and its effects are well known. In order to combat the problem, we must reject the use of housing as a commodity to maximize profits and concentrate on rights to a decent place to live, in the area of one's choosing, at an affordable cost. (Author/EB)

For a community to be safe, all citizens must be protected against the problems of unemployment, inadequate housing, poor educational opportunities, racial discrimination, and unequal protection under the law. The attack on these problems must be coordinated and marked by good leadership if it is to succeed. (Author/MC)