Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
parative framework how long-term paterns of segregation, separation,
and exclusion developed between the African American community
and the rest of the population of the United States. Even with the rela-
tively simple data used here, it is possible to address questions about the
emergence and persistence of racial segregation with respect to African
Americans. In short, this essay should be seen as a starting point to
put the discussion of the trajectory of segregation in cities and metro-
politan areas in the United States and elsewhere on a more empirical
footing.
The Importance of Segregation and
Its Study in the United States
Segregation in housing, schools, and workplaces has plagued the United
States since slavery was abolished after the Civil War. Though formally
free, African Americans faced numerous legal restrictions in the South.
Many traded their slave status for that of sharecropper. In other words,
newly freed slaves worked the land of their former owners and received
only a portion of the crops that they produced ater puting in long hours
planting and harvesting the crops and paying for the seed. The landown-
ers' portion was seen as rent, but in many instances the former slaves
were even worse off economically than they had been before.
8
Because
of the slave system, African Americans and whites in the South, includ-
ing in the cities, initially lived in closer proximity to one another than
they did in the North. However, once African Americans moved to the
northern cities in large numbers, it became plain that though perhaps not
explicitly discriminated against with respect to seating in restaurants,
using public transportation, and other public realms, both the job and
housing markets were not open to them in the same way they were open
to others, including many members of immigrant groups. The persis-
tence of residential racial segregation and its impact has been a central
focus of American social science since the mid-twentieth century.
The study of residential segregation in the United States grew hand
in hand with the development of the census tract system, which became
institutionalized in the census of 1940. The tract system allowed the
compilation and dissemination of statistics from so-called small areas
