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Title: From Side Street to Ghetto: Understanding the Rising Levels and Changing Spatial Pattern of Segregation, 1900-1940

Citation Type: Working Paper

Publication Year: 2020

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Abstract: Residential segregation between African Americans and whites is a long-standing feature of the spatial structure of American cities. This study examines the levels and trends of segregation in 134 cities during 1900-1940 at multiple spatial scales, ranging from the household and dwelling to city wards. We report three main findings. First, racial segregation was already high at a local scale in 1900 and increased greatly in nearly all cities. Second, the scale of segregation in all kinds of cities shifted from individual streets with many black residents toward entire wards that were more highly divided by race. Third, among the many Northern cities with modest black populations, those with greater black presence were more segregated, consistent with a “group threat” hypothesis. In Southern cities and major Northern Destination cities, however, there is no support for this explanation. These findings lead toward a conclusion that the main trends creating the black ghetto by the mid-20th Century were national in scope, and future research should focus less on why some cities differed from others than on why such similar trajectories are found everywhere.

Url: https://s4.ad.brown.edu/Projects/UTP2/Trajectories of Segregation wp.pdf

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Authors: Logan, John R; Bellman, Benjamin; Minca, Elisabeta

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Institution: Brown University

Pages: 1-46

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA - Ancestry Full Count Data

Topics: Housing and Segregation, Race and Ethnicity

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