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Urban Destination Selection among African Americans during the 1950s Great Migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Townsand Price-Spratlen
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Abstract

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This article examines a place utility model of how destination assets influenced inmigration for the 1950s African American urban system. Archival and historiographical data are combined with census data to conduct weighted least-squares regressions that compare economic, ethnogenic, and other place utilities. Despite declines in migrant selectivity and net southern out-migration, ethnogenic characteristics increased the size of in-migrant streams during the 1950s, net of the momentum from prior migration and, most important, net of economic and demographic place utilities. Even as several dramatic changes began or intensified during the period, ethnogenic attractions continued to shape destination selection during this “bridge” decade of civil rights–era migration.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2008 , pp. 437 - 469
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2008 

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