Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Change,
a topic cited over a thousand times, according to a citation analy-
sis.
15
Originally published in 1965, the topic summarized the paterns
of segregation using the dissimilarity index, which is still one of the
fundamental indexes for measuring segregation and will be discussed
below. In short, the line of scholarly work on segregation was driven by
the Great Migration, the effects of which had become quite noticeable
in Chicago and elsewhere by 1950. Using data that did not exist when
Taeuber and Taeuber wrote, this essay examines the emergence of seg-
regation in major northern cities and charts its course from 1880 to the
end of the twentieth century.
Once begun, the analysis of segregation became a solid tradition in
sociological and demographic research. As each census was released, the
classic and other measures of segregation were computed by more and
more researchers. Starting when the Census Bureau began producing
tracts for many cities in the United States, the more precise measurement
and analysis of segregation became an important area of research. Other
researchers examined the segregation paterns of immigrant groups in
the cities. Despite some similarities with the paterns of segregation with
respect to African Americans as expressed by Burgess and others, the
levels of segregation for non-Hispanic white immigrants groups were
much lower than those for African Americans. Furthermore, the level
of segregation among those groups faded over time, while segregation
between African Americans and whites remained high.
16
he source and
the consequences of current levels of segregation with respect to African
Americans are controversial. In their work entitled
American Apartheid,
Douglas Massey and Nancy Denton argue that residential segregation
substantially altered a whole range of life chances for African Ameri-
cans.
17
Until the advent of U.S. civil rights laws in the 1960s with the pas-
sage of the Civil Rights Act, it was perfectly legal to deny housing or jobs
to anyone based merely on their membership or affiliation, racial, ethnic,
or otherwise. Furthermore, throughout much of the North, so-called
restrictive covenants were added to deeds that prohibited the sale of
property to African Americans. For all of these reasons it is particularly
important to understand the emergence and persistence of segregation
with respect to African Americans. How persistent is it? Has it abated in
recent decades? Is it different in different locales, and for what reasons?