Black Residential Mobility: Trends and Characteristics

This analysis of trends in Black residential mobility uses a multi‐disciplinary approach that incorporates contributions from sociology, psychology, economics, demography, and social geography, among others. It examines population migrations from Africa during the slave trade, mobility patterns during the internal slave trade within the United States, and the large population shifts during the industrialization of the urban North and West. Contemporary patterns of segregated urban environments are viewed from the perspective of external constraints on Black residential mobility opportunities. These constraints, operating at both individual and institutional levels, include the actions of individual homeowners, realtors, local and federal legislators, and lending institutions. The attitudes of Blacks are viewed as “internal factors” which also serve to maintain segregated living arrangements. The processes and consequences associated with urban ghettoization are identified. Recent trends of Black suburbanization, “gentrification,” and Latino/Black residential integration, are identified and discussed. The article concludes with an examination of potential future scenarios, provides suggestions for future research, and addresses a number of policy and practical issues.