Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T13:34:58.472Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Townsand Price-Spratlen
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

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.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2008 , pp. 437 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2008 

References

Alexander, J. Trent (1998) “The Great Migration in comparative perspective.” Social Science History 22: 349–76.Google Scholar
Allison, Paul D. (1999) Multiple Regression: A Primer. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge.Google Scholar
Blalock, Hubert M. Jr. (1979) Social Statistics. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Blanco, Cicely (1962) The Determinants of Regional Factor Mobility. The Hague: Posmans.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert L. (1998) “The storefront church ministry in African American communities of the urban North during the Great Migration: The making of an ethnic niche.” Social Science Journal 35: 319–32.Google Scholar
Boyd, Robert L. (2002) “A ‘migration of despair’: Unemployment, the search for work, and migration to farms during the Great Depression.” Social Science Quarterly 83: 554–67.Google Scholar
Brown, David L. (2002) “Migration and community: Social networks in a multilevel world.” Rural Sociology 67: 1–23.Google Scholar
Brown, Lawrence A., Horton, Frank E., and Wittick, Robert I. (1970) “On place utility and the normative allocation of intra-urban migrants.” Demography 7: 175–83.Google Scholar
Brown, Lawrence A., and Longbrake, David B. (1970) “Migration flows in intraurban space: Place utility considerations.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 60: 368–84.Google Scholar
Canaan, Gareth (2001) “‘Part of the loaf’: Economic conditions of Chicago's African-American working class during the 1920's.” Journal of Social History 35: 147–74.Google Scholar
Curry, Leonard P. (1981) The Free Black in Urban America, 1800–1850: The Shadow of the Dream. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dann, Martin (1971) The Black Press, 1827–1890. New York: Putnam.Google Scholar
Drake, St. Clair, and Cayton, Horace R. (1945) Black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a Northern City. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil (1981) Going North: Migration of Blacks and Whites from the South, 1900–1950. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Fotheringham, A. Stewart , Champion, Tony, Wymer, Colin, and Coombes, Mike (2000) “Measuring destination attractivity: A migration example.” International Journal of Population Geography 6: 391–421.Google Scholar
Frey, William H. (2004) The New Great Migration: Black Americans' Return to the South, 1965–2000. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar
Gardner, John, and Cohen, William (1971) Demographic Characteristics of the Population of the United States, 1930–1950, County Level [computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research.Google Scholar
Greene, William H. (1997) Econometric Analysis. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Michael J. (1973) “Urban economic growth and migration: Their interaction.” Environment and Planning 5: 91–112.Google Scholar
Greenwood, Michael J. (1981) Migration and Economic Growth in the United States. New York: Academic.Google Scholar
Gregory, James N. (2005) The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migration of Black and White Southerners Transformed America. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Grossman, James R. (1989) Land of Hope: Chicago, Black Southerners, and the Great Migration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heinicke, Craig (1994) “African American migration and mechanized cotton harvesting, 1950–1960.” Explorations in Economic History 31: 501–20.Google Scholar
Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) (1974) Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Ann Arbor, MI: ICPSR.Google Scholar
Jenkins, William D. (2001) “Before downtown: Cleveland, Ohio, and urban renewal, 1949–1958.” Journal of Urban History 27: 471–96.Google Scholar
Johnson, Daniel M., and Campbell, Rex R. (1981) Black Migration in America: A Social Demographic History. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Jonas, Gilbert (2005) Freedom's Sword: The NAACP and the Struggle against Racism in America, 1909–1969. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jones, Jacqueline (1985) Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kontuly, Thomas, Smith, Ken R., and Heaton, Tim B. (1995) “Culture as a determinant of reasons for migration.” Social Science Journal 32: 179–93.Google Scholar
Krivo, Lauren J., and Peterson, Ruth D. (2000) “The structural context of homicide: Accounting for racial differences in process.” American Sociological Review 65: 547–59.Google Scholar
Kusmer, Kenneth L. (1976) A Ghetto Takes Shape: Black Cleveland, 1870–1930. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Kyriakoudes, Louis M. (2003) The Social Origins of the Urban South. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Lansing, John R., and Mueller, Eva (1967) The Geographic Mobility of Labor. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Lemann, Nicholas (1991) The Promised Land. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Lemke-Santangelo, Gretchen (1996) Abiding Courage: African American Migrant Women and the East Bay Community. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Lieberson, Stanley C. (1980) “The interpretation of net migration rates,” in Schuessler, Karl F. (ed.) Sociological Methodology. San Francisco: Chandler: 176–90.Google Scholar
Lincoln, C. Eric , and Mamiya, Lawrence H. (1990) The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Maloney, Thomas N. (2001) “Migration and economic opportunity in the 1910s: New evidence on African American occupational mobility in the North.” Explorations in Economic History 38: 147–65.Google Scholar
Maloney, Thomas N. (2002) “Higher places in the industrial machinery? Tight labor markets and occupational advancement by black males in the 1910s.” Social Science History 26: 475–502.Google Scholar
Marks, Carole (1989) Farewell–We're Good and Gone: The Great Black Migration. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S. (1990) “Social structure, household strategies, and the cumulative causation of migration.” Population Index 56: 3–26.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., Alarcon, Rafael, Durand, Jorge, and Gonzalez, Humberto (1987) Return to Aztlan: The Social Process of International Migration from Western Mexico. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Massey, Douglas S., and Zenteno, Rene M. (1999) “The dynamics of mass migration.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 96: 5328–35.Google Scholar
Mattis, Jacqueline S. (2001) “Religion and African American political life.” Political Psychology 22: 263–78.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug (1982) Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
McHugh, Kevin E. (1988) “Determinants of black interstate migration, 1965–70 and 1975–80.” Annals of Regional Science 22: 36–48.Google Scholar
Morrill, Richard L., and Fred Donaldson, O. (1976) “Geographical perspectives on the history of black America,” in Ernst, Robert T. and Hugg, Lawrence (eds.) Black America: Geographic Perspectives. Garden City, NY: Anchor: 9–33.Google Scholar
Morris, Aldon D. (1984) The Origin of the Civil Rights Movement: Black Communities Organizing for Change. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Mueser, Peter R. (1989) “Measuring the impact of locational characteristics on migration: Interpreting cross-sectional analyses.” Demography 26: 499–513.Google Scholar
National Urban League (NUL) (1990) National Urban League: Eightieth Anniversary, 1910–1990. New York: NUL.Google Scholar
Neter, John, Wasserman, William, and Kutner, Michael H. (1985) Applied Linear Statistics Models. Homewood, IL: Irwin.Google Scholar
Phillips, Kimberly L. (1999) Alabama North: African-American Migrants, Community, and Working-Class Activism in Cleveland, 1915–1945. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Preston, Samuel H., and Richards, Alan Thomas (1975) “The influence of women's work opportunities on marriage rates.” Demography 12: 209–22.Google Scholar
Price-Spratlen, Townsand (1998) “Between depression and prosperity? Changes in the community context of historical African American migration.” Social Forces 77: 515–39.Google Scholar
Price-Spratlen, Townsand (1999a) “Livin' for the city: African American ethnogenesis and Depression era migration.” Demography 36: 553–68.Google Scholar
Price-Spratlen, Townsand (1999b) “Flowin' all at once: Gender, race, and class in Depression era migration.” Race, Gender, and Class 6: 147–70.Google Scholar
Price-Spratlen, Townsand (2003) “The urban context of historical activism: NAACP Depression era insurgency and organization-building activity.” Sociological Quarterly 44: 303–28.Google Scholar
Pride, Amistead Scott (1950) “A register and history of Negro newspapers in the United States, 1827–1950.” PhD diss., Northwestern University.Google Scholar
Roseman, Curtis C. (1983) “A framework for the study of migration destination selection.” Population and Environment 6: 151–65.Google Scholar
Roseman, Curtis C., and Lee, Seong Woo (1998) “Linked and independent African American migration from Los Angeles.” Professional Geographer 50: 204–14.Google Scholar
Shrestha, Nanda R., Smith, Wilbur I., and Evans, Charles L. (2003) “Black migration at the margin of freedom.” International Journal of Population Geography 9: 113–39.Google Scholar
Sjaastad, Larry A. (1962) “The costs and returns of human migration.” Journal of Political Economy 70: 80–93.Google Scholar
Spilimbergo, Antonio, and Ubeda, Luis (2004) “Family attachment and the decision to move by race.” Journal of Urban Economics 55: 478–97.Google Scholar
Suarez, Ray (1999) The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966–1999. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Taeuber, Karl E., and Taeuber, Alma F. (1965) Negroes in Cities: Residential Segregation and Neighborhood Change. New York: Atheneum.Google Scholar
Taylor, Ronald C. (1979) “Black ethnicity and the persistence of ethnogenesis.” American Journal of Sociology 84: 1401–23.Google Scholar
Thomas, Richard W. (1992) Life for Us Is What We Make It: Building Black Community in Detroit, 1915–1945. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Todaro, Michael (1980) “Internal migration in developing countries: A survey” in Easterlin, Richard A. (ed.) Population and Economic Change in Developing Countries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 361–402.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E. (1998) “Educational selection in the migration of southern blacks, 1880–1990.” Social Forces 77: 487–514.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E. (2001) “The Great Migration gets underway: A comparison of black southern migrants and nonmigrants in the North, 1920.” Social Science Quarterly 82: 235–52.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., and Beck, E. M. (1992) “Racial violence and black migration in the American South, 1910 to 1930.” American Sociological Review 57: 103–16.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., and Crowder, Kyle D. (1999) “Regional origin and family stability in northern cities: The role of context.” American Sociological Review 64: 97–112.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., Crowder, Kyle D., and Adelman, Robert M. (2000) “’Narrow and filthy alleys of the city’? The residential settlement patterns of black southern migrants to the North.” Social Forces 78: 989–1015.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., Crowder, Kyle D., and Adelman, Robert M. (2002) “Race, regional origin, and residence in northern cities at the beginning of the Great Migration.” American Sociological Review 67: 456–75.Google Scholar
Tolnay, Stewart E., Curtis White, Katherine J., Crowder, Kyle D., and Adelman, Robert M. (2005) “Distances traveled during the Great Migration: An analysis of racial differences among male migrants.” Social Science History 29: 523–48.Google Scholar
Ullman, Edward L. (1957) American Commodity Flow: A Geographical Interpretation of Rail and Water Traffic Based on Principles of Spatial Interchange. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1953) Census of Manufacturers: 1947, 1952. Vol. 3, Reports by States. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1963) U.S. Census of Population, Characteristics of the Population, State Summary Volumes. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census (1980) Censuses of Religious Bodies, 1906–1936 [computer file]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research [producer and distributor].Google Scholar
Vigdor, Jacob L. (2002) “The pursuit of opportunity: Explaining selective black migration.” Journal of Urban Economics 51: 391–417.Google Scholar
Voss, Paul R., Hammer, Roger B., and Meier, Ann M. (2001) “Migration analysis: A case study for local public policy.” Population Research and Policy Review 20: 587–603.Google Scholar
Watson, Denton L. (1993) “Assessing the role of the NAACP in the civil rights movement.” Historian 55: 453–69.Google Scholar
White, Katherine J. Curtis, Crowder, Kyle D., Tolnay, Stewart E., and Adelman, Robert M. (2005) “Race, gender, and marriage: Destination selection during the Great Migration.” Demography 42: 215–41.Google Scholar
Wilkins, Roy, ed. (1934–49) The Crisis. New York: Crisis Publishing.Google Scholar
Wilson, Thomas C. (2001) “Explaining black southern migrants' advantage in family stability: The role of selective migration.” Social Forces 80: 555–67.Google Scholar
Wilson, William Julius (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Yancey, William, Ericksen, Eugene, and Juliani, Richard (1976) “Emergent ethnicity: A review and reformation.” American Sociological Review 41: 391–403.Google Scholar