Migration of Blacks in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, 1973 to 1977

Southeastern Geographer Vol. 24, No. 2, November 1984, pp. 99-114 MIGRATION OF BLACKS IN THE ATLANTA METROPOLITAN AREA, 1973 TO 1977 James O. Wheeler and Barry W. Davis A large literature has developed over the past several decades on the residential location of blacks in American metropolitan areas. This research includes contributions by sociologists, demographers, economists , and geographers. In particular, geographers have focused on the spatial expansion of ghettos, residential search behavior of black migrants , the changing racial mix of elementary school districts, black inmigration and associated white flight, and black suburbanization. (J) Some studies have focused on particular metropolitan areas while others have taken a national perspective. (2) Many studies have been largely empirical, although some have put forth conceptual models. (3) The spatial expansion of the ghetto has been an important topic for geographers. Research on ghetto expansion by Morrill and Rose has been more recently extended conceptually by Deskins, who advanced a three-phase model of ghetto morphology. (4) The incipient ghetto phase, describing black residential settlement during the latter part of the nineteenth century, was characterized by the concentration of individual black households, the coalescence of these households into a black neighborhood, and the expansion of the neighborhood cluster. The second phase, termed the developing ghetto, saw the expanded neighborhood cluster, along with other smaller black subclusters of settlement , evolve and coalesce into a ghetto occupying a sizable part of the city. Deskins placed the developing ghetto period from 1900 to 1969. The third phase, the maturing ghetto, has evolved since 1970. In this phase, the ghetto exists along with a series of smaller metropolitan subclusters of black residences. Again, there is coalescence of subclusters into a metropolitan cluster, followed by expansion of the metropolitan cluster. The metropolitan ghetto includes suburban space. A second topic on which some geographers have carried out research is the phenomenon of white flight, a term defined in different ways. At the most general level, and as used here, white flight refers to the inDr . Wheeler is Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia in Athens, GA 30602. Mr. Davis is Sales Associate with Askew Realty Company, Atlanta, GA 30338. 100Southeastern Geographer migration of blacks and the out-migration of whites from the same neighborhood. At a more technical level, it may be used to refer to population relocation as the result of a court order (busing) or government policy (location of public housing). Debate has centered around the question of whether court-orders and government efforts at school integration have led to white flight and increased resegregation. Clark concluded that "people do not consider schools as a primary force in their residential mobility. " (5) Lord identified two types of white flight in the context of school enrollment, the first involving the abandonment of public schools and enrollment in private schools without a residential change and the second the out-migration of white households. (6) Lord and Catau found that desegregation and busing were not the only factors in residential relocation of whites, but such factors as more open space, less threat of crime, and lower property taxes were of equal or greater significance. (7) Lord concluded that "school desegregation and related busing have produced white flight, but the impact has varied widely from one school district to another. . . ."(S) A third research area that has received increasing recent attention is black suburbanization. Rose found that "the process of black suburbanization is most often associated with spatial extension of the ghettoization process. ..." (9) Many black suburban areas lack characteristic features of white suburbs. Clark, examining data for the U.S. black suburbanization, found for the less prosperous segment of the black population that suburban "poverty areas" have developed which may increasingly come to resemble central city ghettos. For the more prosperous , however, the suburbs offer an opportunity for greater integration . (JO) Lake, in a comprehensive analysis of recent black suburbanization , found that "the suburbanization of blacks is being accompanied by the increasing territorial differentiation of suburbia along racial lines—and not by integration." (JJ) He cited "strong evidence of a suburban housing market explicitly and implicitly organized along racial lines" and noted that "suburbanization for blacks connotes constrained residential...