Black Migration, Northern Cities, and Labor Markets after 1970

Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan

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.

2021 ◽  
pp. 291-302
Author(s):  
Izabella Kimak ◽  
Zbigniew Mazur

In this article we look at three recent films–Native Son (2019, dir. Rashid Johnson, based on Richard Wright’s 1940 novel), Widows (2018, dir. Steve McQueen, based on a 1983 TV series), and The Hate U Give (2018, dir. George Tillman Jr., based on a book by Angie Thomas)–by Black directors that showcase the interactions between Blacks and whites in an American urban milieu. We argue that the setting of two of these films–Native Son and Widows–in Chicago, with The Hate U Give being set in a fictional urban setting bearing a strong resemblance to the Windy City, serves to articulate the continuing racial divisions of American cities in the twenty-first century. The three films show that the fossilization of the divide between Black and white districts inevitably leads to outbreaks of racial violence.


Author(s):  
Leah Platt Boustan

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.


Author(s):  
Ashley S. Long ◽  
JD DeFresse ◽  
Allison K. Bickett ◽  
David E. Price

Context: Depression is among the most common mental health disorder in youth, results in significant impairment, and is associated with a higher risk of suicide. Screening is essential but assessment tools may not be appropriate across races or do not account for the complex interrelatedness of various demographics including gender, socio-economic status and race. Objectives: (1) To determine the factor structure of the Patient Health Questionnaire-Adolescent (PHQ-A) for measuring depression in a group of adolescent athletes; and (2) to determine measurement invariance between Blacks and Whites on the PHQ-A. Design: Retrospective cohort design. Setting: Data obtained from a secure database collected at a free, comprehensive, mass pre-participation physical exam (PPE) event hosted by a large health care system. Participants: Participants included 683 high school athletes (Black n=416; White n=267). Independent variables included somatic and affective factors contributing to the construct of depression measured by the PHQ-A and participant race (Black and White). Main Outcome Measures : (1) Factors upon which the construct of depression is measured and (2) measurement invariance between Blacks and Whites. Results: A two-factor model, including affective and somatic components, was specified and exhibited an adequate fit to the data (CFI> .90). All items exhibited moderate to high squared multiple correlation values (R2 = .10–.65), suggesting that these items resonated relatively well with participants. The two-factor model demonstrated noninvariance Black and White participants (RMSEA = .06-.08). Conclusions: Overall, the structure of the PHQ-A is supported by a two-factor model in adolescent athletes, measuring both affective and somatic symptoms of depression. A two factor PHQ-A structure is not fully invariant for the adolescents sampled across participant groups, implying that the model functions differently between Blacks and Whites sampled.


Author(s):  
M.V. Kostina ◽  
Yu.A. Nasimovich

The aim of the study was to find out taxonomic composition of poplars cultivated to the south of Moscow, which is poorly known compared to big northern cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg. Species, hybrids and cultivars were identified by morphology. In Saratov and Engels we found two local species of Populus (P. alba, P. nigra), 1 alien (P. simonii) and about 10 hybrids, mostly cultivars. P. nigra is represented by two well distinguished varieties. Hybrids, especially the complex ones (P. x petrovskoe) are predominant over “pure” species. The composition of ornamental poplars in these towns is approximately similar to Moscow, differences are due to a more southern location, smaller size of the towns , and their position inside the P. nigra and outside the P. longifolia areas.


Author(s):  
Ahmad Sabbahi ◽  
Assem Ellythy ◽  
Chueh-Lung Hwang ◽  
Shane A. Phillips

Black Americans have an earlier onset, higher average blood pressure, and higher rates of hypertension-related mortality and morbidity, compared to whites. The racial difference may be related to microvasculature, the major regulatory site of blood pressure. The goal of this study was to compare the response of resistance vessels to high intraluminal pressure between black and white participants. A total of 38 vessels were obtained from human fat samples (21 black, 17 white; mean age 32 ± 12 years and BMI 26.9 ± 4.9; between-group P ≥ 0.05) and included in this study. Internal diameter was measured in response to flow induced by various pressure gradients (Δ10, Δ20, Δ40, Δ60, and Δ100 cmH2O), and flow-induced dilation (FID) was calculated before and after high intraluminal pressure (150 cm H2O). Prior to high intraluminal pressure, FID was not different between blacks and whites (P = 0.112). After exposure to high intraluminal pressure, FID was reduced at every pressure gradient in vessels from blacks (P < 0.001), while FID did not change in white participants except at Δ 100 cmH2O. When incubated with the H2O2 scavenger PEG-catalase, the FID response in vessels from black, but not white, individuals was significantly reduced and the magnitude was higher at normal pressure relative to high pressure. Our findings suggest that vessels from self-identified black individuals are more susceptible to microvascular dysfunction following transient periods of high intraluminal pressure compared to whites and show greater dependence on H2O2 as a main contributor to FID at normal pressures.


2018 ◽  
pp. 156-173
Author(s):  
Mary Weaks-Baxter

This chapter looks at the consequences of the inability to negotiate borders because of deeply entrenched narrative patterns that circle back upon themselves, perpetuating communal values that stoke division. The chapter examines the quintessential victim of the Southern Lost Cause—Faulkner’s Quentin Compson—who is a divided self because he left the South. He is even before he leaves Mississippi for Boston, “two separate Quentins,” one “preparing for Harvard in the South” and the other “still too young to deserve yet to be a ghost.” Through Quentin, Faulkner makes clear the dangers of divisions between black and white, between North and South, and the inability of Southerners to successfully navigate the psychological borderlands and leave behind the crushing past of the South. Faulkner’s Quentin is the most indelibly inked reminder of the consequences of border narratives gone awry and a warning of the harm of building walls and not bridges.


Author(s):  
Scott L. Matthews

The introduction explores why the South became known as America’s “most documented” region beginning in the 1940s and into the twenty-first century. It argues that documentarians saw the region as a fertile place to do fieldwork for two main reasons. First, the region possessed unique and seemingly fragile folk cultures in need of preservation before modern influences erased them. Second, the region possessed seemingly endemic problems associated with its racial caste system and agricultural economies that needed documentation, study, and reform. The introduction also provides an overview of how historians and theorists defined “documentary” throughout the twentieth century and how and why some black and white southerners resisted the intrusion of documentarians into their lives. Additionally, it traces the history of documentary fieldwork in the South from the eighteenth through the nineteenth century and demonstrates how the tradition’s dominant themes developed during this time, particularly in the travel writings and sketches of Basil Hall, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jonathan Baxter Harrison and others. Finally, it highlights the distinguishing features of twentieth-century documentary by emphasizing the role of Progressive and New Deal reform impulses, the Folk Revival and Civil Rights Movement, and the development of portable recording technologies.


2021 ◽  
pp. 154-176
Author(s):  
Jason E. Shelton

This chapter assesses the importance of spirituality among African Americans. More specifically, it examines the extent to which respondents in a large, multiyear national survey view themselves as a “spiritual person.” Four sets of comparative analysis are offered: (1) racial differences among black and white members of various evangelical Protestant traditions, (2) racial differences among black and white members of various mainline Protestant and Catholic traditions, (3) denominational differences specifically among African Americans, and (4) racial differences among blacks and whites who view themselves as “spiritual but not religious.” The findings reveal significant interracial and intraracial differences in how spirituality shapes one’s personal identity. Because organized religion has historically been so central to African American community life, the implications for the growth in noninstitutional spirituality are considered.


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