Epilogue: Black Migration, Northern Cities, and Labor Markets after 1970

2017 ◽  
pp. 154-164
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Black Migration ◽  
Northern Cities

Black Migration from the South in Historical Context

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Labor Demand ◽  
Economic Returns ◽  
Birth Cohorts ◽  
The South ◽  
Black Migration ◽  
The North ◽  
War Effort ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
European Immigration

This chapter explains that the mobility of black southerners began increasing in the birth cohorts born immediately after the Civil War. Many of these moves took place within the South. Despite plentiful industrial jobs in the “thousand furnaces” of northern cities at the turn of the twentieth century, the potential wage benefits of settling in the North was dampened by the absence of a migrant network that southern blacks could use to secure employment upon arrival. Large flows of northward migration awaited a period of abnormally high economic returns, which arose during World War I. Circa 1915, northern factories supplying the war effort experienced a surge in labor demand, coupled with a temporary freeze in European immigration, which encouraged northern employers to turn to other sources of labor.

Black Migration, Northern Cities, and Labor Markets after 1970

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan
Keyword(s):  
Market Competition ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Skilled Workers ◽  
The South ◽  
Central Cities ◽  
Black Migration ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
Blacks And Whites ◽  
American Cities

This concluding chapter examines how the three trends at the heart of this book's story—black migration from the South, the earnings convergence between blacks and whites, and white departures from central cities—have evolved in recent decades. By 1970, black migration from the South slowed, though black and white earnings have not converged further in northern cities. Just as black migration to northern cities tapered off, a new migration of low-skilled workers from Latin America was getting underway. This new migration wave coincided with decreased demand for manufacturing workers in American cities as a result of technological change and globalization. Thus, in recent years, black workers in northern cities have faced new sources of labor market competition, compounded by falling demand for some low-skilled operative and clerical positions, leading wages to stagnate further.

Competition in the Promised Land

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan
Keyword(s):  
Labor Markets ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Census Data ◽  
Black Workers ◽  
Black Migration ◽  
Racial Change ◽  
Local Public Services ◽  
Promised Land ◽  
The North ◽  
Black Economic

From 1940 to 1970, nearly four million black migrants left the American rural South to settle in the industrial cities of the North and West. This book provides a comprehensive account of the long-lasting effects of the influx of black workers on labor markets and urban space in receiving areas. Traditionally, the Great Black Migration has been lauded as a path to general black economic progress. This book challenges this view, arguing instead that the migration produced winners and losers within the black community. The book shows that migrants themselves gained tremendously, more than doubling their earnings by moving North. But these new arrivals competed with existing black workers, limiting black–white wage convergence in Northern labor markets and slowing black economic growth. Furthermore, many white households responded to the black migration by relocating to the suburbs. White flight was motivated not only by neighborhood racial change but also by the desire on the part of white residents to avoid participating in the local public services and fiscal obligations of increasingly diverse cities. Employing historical census data and state-of-the-art econometric methods, this book revises our understanding of the Great Black Migration and its role in the transformation of American society.

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