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Title: The Fluidity of Race: "Passing" in the United States, 1880-1940

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2015

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Abstract: This paper quantifies the extent to which individuals experience changes in reported racial identity in the historical U.S. context. Using the full population of historical Censuses for 1880-1940, we document that over 19% of black males passed for white at some point during their lifetime, around 10% of whom later reverse-passed to being black; passing was accompanied by geographic relocation to communities with a higher percentage of whites and occurred the most in Northern states. The evidence suggests that passing was positively associated with better political-economic and social opportunities for whites relative to blacks. As such, endogenous race is likely to be a quantitatively important phenomenon.

Url: http://aida.wss.yale.edu/~nq3/NANCYS_Yale_Website/resources/papers/NixQian_20150101.pdf

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Authors: Nix, Emily; Qian, Nancy

Publisher: Yale University

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Race and Ethnicity

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