The Brookings Institution
reports that blacks are returning to the South. Might mean something for the white state project recently discussed in these pages.
The South scored net gains of black migrants from all three of the other regions of the U.S. during the late 1990s, reversing a 35-year trend. Of the 10 states that suffered the greatest net loss of blacks between 1965 and 1970, five ranked among the top 10 states for attracting blacks between 1995 and 2000.
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Among migrants from the Northeast, Midwest, and West regions, blacks were more likely than whites to select destinations in the South
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College-educated individuals lead the new migration into the South.
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This full-scale reversal of blacks' "Great Migration" north during the early part of the 20th century reflects the South's economic growth and modernization, its improved race relations, and the longstanding cultural and kinship ties it holds for black families. This new pattern has augmented a sizeable and growing black middle class in the South's major metropolitan areas.