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White flight
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Please check for inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.
White flight is a colloquial term for the demographic trend of upper and middle class
Americans (predominantly white) moving away from inner cities (predominantly non-white),
finding new homes in nearby suburbs or even moving to new locales entirely.
In areas of some of the largest cities in the United States, the trend reversed itself in the
1990s to a limited extent (see gentrification). White flight is often attributed to racism. Some
have argued that it is primarily attributable to economic prejudice or rapidly increasing
crime rates in racially mixed neighborhoods beginning in the 1960s. People often leave
dense urban areas for financial reasons such as increasing taxes and high rent rates in
major urban centers.
Contents
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1 White flight in the United States
❍ 1.1 History
❍ 1.2 Governmental aspects of white flight
❍ 1.3 Schools and Busing
❍ 1.4 White flight in recent decades
1.4.1 White flight in Southern California
2 White flight elsewhere in the world
3 Gentrification
4 Notes
5 References
6 See also
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White flight in the United States
White flight has been taking place in many American cities and regions, especially in the
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Northeastern, Midwestern, and Western sections of the United States, since the 1930s.
The effects of the phenomenon have been significant, particularly in the cities of Detroit,
Memphis, St. Louis, Milwaukee and New Orleans, all of which lost more than half their
white populations. In New York City many white people moved from parts of the Bronx,
Queens, and Brooklyn to Staten Island, suburban Long Island, suburban New Jersey, and
Westchester and Rockland Counties.
Other U.S. cities that have been noticeably affected by white flight include Philadelphia,
Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Cleveland, Boston, Hartford, the West and South Sides of
Chicago, the Greater Los Angeles Area (in inner suburbs such as Compton and Inglewood
in the mid-20th century and in many other places since then - see "White flight in Southern
California" below), Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Newark, New Jersey, and numerous
smaller cities.
History
In the years after World War II, White Americans began to move away from inner core
cities to newer suburban communities. Major cities had experienced tight housing markets
during the war years along with an influx of blacks seeking war work. White people with the
means to leave sometimes did so to escape the increasing racial tensions they observed
on television news reports of the volatile Civil Rights Movement, which they thought
generated crime in inner cities between radical racists and new black residents. In other
cases, Whites left simply because they thought that suburban communities, with their new
housing stock and schools and their open spaces, were more desirable places to live. Prior
to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, due to racist real-estate covenants, redlining, and other
discriminatory practices, non-white peoples were rarely allowed to move away from the
cities, even when they may have been economically able to do so.
As the wealthier white residents abandoned the inner city neighborhoods, they ultimately
left behind increasingly poor non-white populations whose neighborhoods rapidly
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deteriorated in the 1950s and especially in the 1960s, as in many cases even trash
collection was halted. White people quickly took their tax and investment dollars and
services, such as teachers, grocery stores, and clothing retail with them. The 1967 Detroit
12th Street Riot is probably the worst case reaction to these events in US history. With no
local jobs or businesses, the neighborhoods disintegrated and ultimately turned into
increasingly poverty-stricken and crime-ridden slums with failing and dilapidated public
schools.
An important element of this migration of well-to-do whites was the availability of federally
subsidized home mortgages (VA, FHA, HOLC) which made it possible for families to buy
cheap, new homes in the suburbs — but not to rent apartments in cities. State and federal
governments also subsidized white flight by paying for highways to carry suburbanites to
work in cities where the jobs remained (the National Defense and Interstate Highway Act
and its successors) and by changing tax codes to benefit suburban "minimal cities" ("the
Lakewood Plan"). This plan further divided and isolated black neighborhoods from goods
and services, many times encircling them within industrial corridors.
Another important aspect of this migration was the phenomenon of "blockbusting." Real
estate agents would facilitate the sale of a house in a white neighborhood to a black family
by subterfuge, often buying the house themselves, or using a white proxy and reselling,
perhaps at a reduced price, to the black family. A panic, fanned by the real estate agents
and the media, would then ensue among some white homeowners, who feared that their
property values would drop — which of course they did as soon as they began selling in
large numbers, generating large commissions for the agents. The real estate agents would
then sell at higher prices to the incoming black families, reaping the profits of the price
difference as well as the sales commissions. It was not uncommon for a neighborhood to
be completely changed in the space of a few years by this process.
Several poorer predominantly white communities also face conditions similar to those of
areas that have experienced white flight. The cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls in New
York serve as prime examples. The 1960s saw significant white flight from the inner city of
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Columbus, Ohio and smaller Ohio metropolitan areas, such as Dayton and Springfield. In
these areas, manufacturing jobs were once dominant but have now largely disappeared,
resulting in urban decay.
Governmental aspects of white flight
Due to the nature of American local governmental structure, white flight enabled people
who moved into the suburbs to create new municipalities outside the jurisdiction of the
original city, without any of the legacy costs of maintaining existing infrastructure. By the
enactment of restrictive zoning, these new entities could ensure that no poor or (in some
cases middle-class) emigrants could afford to move into their enclaves. Such municipalities
were incorporated by the hundreds on the peripheries of cities. The details, of course,
varied according to state statutes and local politics. Milwaukee, for example, was able to
annex parts of surrounding towns, including the former Town of Granville and thus expand
to a greater extent than many landlocked cities (Then-Mayor Frank P. Zeidler famously
inveighed against the destructive effect of the "Iron Ring" of new municipalities
[1]
incorporated in the post-World War II decade .). In Atlanta, this process is still going on as
new municipalities such as Sandy Springs, Georgia are created out of formerlyunincorporated Fulton County.
Schools and Busing
White flight has also affected education. The landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision
Brown v. Board of Education ordered the desegregation of schools. American cities
affected by white flight also witnessed growing disparities in the quality of education. Thus,
to achieve racial balance and equality in schools, the Court subsequently mandated in the
1971 decision of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education the institution of
busing of black students to mainly formerly all-white schools in the suburbs, and vice versa.
From the mid-1970s, many minority students (especially blacks) were transported miles
from poorer core cities to newer affluent suburbs. As Justice William Douglas observed in
his dissent in Milliken v. Bradley (1974), "The inner core of Detroit is now rather solidly
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black; and the blacks, we know, in many instances are likely to be poorer ..." A similar 1977
Federal decision, Penick v The Columbus Board of Education, accelerated white flight from
Columbus, Ohio to its suburbs. Opposition to integration was strongest among people who
did not themselves have children in public schools, and in particular among those who
already had children in parochial schools.
[2]
Busing and desegregation orders in education had also in some cases led to a further, nongeographical white flight: out of the public school systems, which are subject to
desegregation orders, and into private schools, which are not. For instance, in 1970, when
a federal court ordered desegregation of the public schools of the Pasadena Unified School
District (in Pasadena, California), the proportion of white students in those schools reflected
the proportion of whites in the community, 54 percent and 53 percent, respectively. After
desegregation began, a large number of whites in the upper and middle classes could
afford private schooling and so pulled their children from mixed public schools. As a result,
by 2004 Pasadena was home to sixty-three private schools, which educated one-third of all
school-aged children in the city, and the proportion of white students in the public schools
had fallen to 16 percent. The superintendent of Pasadena USD characterized them as
being to whites "like the bogey-man" [1] and mounted policy changes and a publicity drive
to induce affluent whites to put their children back into the public schools.
White flight in recent decades
White flight continues today, but it has taken on a new aspect as some of the older suburbs
have been experiencing urban decay similar to their parent cities—for example, in some of
the "inner-ring" southern and western suburbs of Chicago, such as Harvey and Maywood.
East St. Louis and many of the neighboring communities on the Illinois side of the St. Louis
metropolitan area have also long suffered from urban decay with the decline of the
manufacturing industries that had once powered the economies of the region.
Many low-income whites in East Coast cities have moved to close-in, working-class
suburbs or other, more heavily white neighborhoods within the same city. This often leaves
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senior citizens (especially "empty nesters") who have often lived in a particular community
for a very long time as the only white residents in neighborhoods that have otherwise seen
complete "white flight". Usually, when these seniors die or move to retirement communities,
the process is complete.
It should also be noted that affluent and professional whites sometimes remain in specific
parts of a city that has otherwise been affected by white flight. For example, well-off whites
continue to live in St. Louis neighborhoods around Forest Park and the Central West End
even as much of the rest of St. Louis has been utterly transformed by the white flight that
has been occurring there since the 1950s.
In New Orleans, there is a concentrated white population in the Garden District south of St.
Charles Avenue and in the Lakeview neighborhood east of City Park and North of Robert
E. Lee Boulevard. There is also a large artsy and bohemian white population in the French
Quarter, Warehouse District, and in the Faubourg Marigny neighborhood. In general,
whites who remain in such locations do not have children or, if they do, their children attend
private schools, which is also a common characteristic of New Orleans. It must also be
noted that the city's Catholic population is high compared to other large cities in the nation.
The immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina further complicated this situation as more
whites have returned to the city than blacks. In March of 2006 the city of New Orleans was
once again predominantly African American.
Even though the demographic makeup of New York City has been dramatically altered due
to white flight from the outer boroughs, parts of Manhattan have actually become more
white during the past 20 years due to gentrification (see below). Some southern sections of
Harlem that border the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of Manhattan now have as
high as a 20% white population, whereas as recently as the early 1990s these enclaves
had non-white population percentages in the high 90s. The population decline of some
Midwestern, Northeastern, and Western cities has slowed down or has even reversed
(such as in parts of Chicago), while other areas remain economically devastated due to
seemingly-permanent economic shifts and job losses (such as in Detroit, Cleveland,
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Milwaukee, & Buffalo).
A recent trend has been white flight due to large-scale immigration of Hispanics and
sometimes other groups, such as East Asians, South & Southeast Asians, Middle
Easterners, and North Africans. This trend has been most pronounced in New York City,
northern New Jersey, and southern California, where most of these groups have settled.
From Queens, white residents first moved from the northern areas of New York, then from
the central and southern areas, largely choosing Nassau and Suffolk Counties on Long
Island. While both Brooklyn and Queens are still home to a sizable number of white
residents, their overall percentage has dwindled. Neighborhoods in Queens dramatically
affected by white flight to the point of total change include Flushing and the surrounding
areas, Long Island City, College Point, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, and Corona.
Neighborhoods currently being affected by a more casual white flight in which children
move away (largely to Long Island) include Ozone Park, Rosedale, and Briarwood. This
form of white flight rarely involves a drop in income, but involves more ethnic change, and
the community is usually not affected negatively, as this is a slower and more casual
process of migration. Some parts of the New York metropolitan area with emerging
Hispanic populations are actually experiencing a new phenomenon where "white flight"
neighborhoods that became mostly black in population are now experiencing a "black
flight" by blacks as Hispanics move in. A few noted parts of the New York City area
experiencing this are much of the Bronx and some sections of the 3 cities on its northern
border (Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, and New Rochelle), urban areas in Union County, New
Jersey such as Elizabeth, and (though only on the periphery of the area), parts of Norwalk
and Bridgeport in Connecticut. Central New Jersey has recently become a perfect example
of the newer white flight. Towns such as, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Edison, East
Brunswick, South Brunswick, North Brunswick, Highland Park and Woodbridge, mostly
Middlesex County towns, populations have shifted between 15-47 percent less white due to
a modern wave of Asian immigrants in just one decade. In these cases, the economic
status of the region has not become economically disadvantaged, but has stayed the same
and in many of these cases has become economically better off. All of these towns are
former suburban pride of New Jersey, and while their home values have generally
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increased seven-fold over the past decade, the majority of white and black families avoid
buying in these areas. Exemplifications of this white flight, and in this case now black and
hispanic flight can be seen in the public schools of these areas where in a matter of 2-5
years can see a drop of over 10% in the white population.
In southern California, eastern Los Angeles County, the eastern San Fernando Valley,
sections of the San Gabriel Valley, sections of the Antelope Valley and sections of Orange
County and the Inland Empire have been affected by white flight due to Asian and Hispanic
immigration.
White flight in Southern California
The forces and groups involved in white flight in Southern California are distinct from those
in other areas due to the region's demography and history.
Many whites once lived in urban neighborhoods in Los Angeles before departing the city in
large numbers after the 1965 Watts Riots. This trend actually began before the riots but it
accelerated in their wake. The major 12th Street Riot in Detroit in 1967 and during the
following year, after the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
contributed to white flight in that city. Now, the city of Detroit is over 80% black whereas a
majority of its neighboring suburbs, such as Livonia, Dearborn, and Warren, are
[3]
predominantly white. . Similarly, after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, large numbers of white
Californians left Southern California or left the state entirely. The phenomenon has affected
not only the central city basin, but also the suburban regions of the San Fernando Valley
and the San Gabriel Valley in Southern California, where many working-class Hispanics
and lower to upper-middle class Asians have moved during much of the 1980s and 1990s.
In addition, during the 1990's and 2000's, many blacks have continued to move out of the
historically African American communities such as Inglewood and Compton to inland
communities such as Fontana, Rialto, Palmdale, Orange County, and Ventura County
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[4]
.
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Some of the people leaving Los Angeles have moved to inland California and other states.
Many of these ex-Californians ended up settling in the Rocky Mountain States of Arizona,
Colorado, Idaho and Nevada. As these people have tended to be politically conservative,
their departure from the state has helped to transform California into a stronghold of the
Democratic Party, while making their new home states even more favorable to the
[5]
Republicans.
Another form of white flight is also taking place in many parts of Northern California, such
as the western suburbs of San Jose, California. White flight, though taking place at a
slower pace, is also affecting high-income upper-class neighborhoods that are becoming
[6]
increasingly Chinese American.
White flight elsewhere in the world
The phenomenon of white flight is also to be found in South African cities, most notably
Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban, which saw a mass influx of Black African people into
the inner cities during the final years of apartheid, and from which white people fled in great
numbers to the suburbs (or out of the country altogether).
In some areas of New Zealand, there has been a gradual process of white flight, in
response to mass urbanisation of Māori and arrivals of Pacific Islander guest workers
between the 1950s and 1970s, though in Auckland the process has largely been in reverse
since the 1980s, with white (Pakeha) New Zealanders moving to previously Māori and
Pacific Islander neighbourhoods such as Ponsonby, Grey Lynn and Kingsland. Similar
gentrification trends have occurred in Wellington inner city suburbs like Thorndon,
Newtown, and Aro Valley. White flight has also significantly affected many areas of
Rotorua, with the phenomenon being blamed for the cities' slide into proverbial "Third
[7]
World" conditions.
In the UK especially England, there is evidence of simultaneous ethnic minority dispersal
and segregation: in the 1980s and 1990s minority groups grew rapidly (in percentage
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terms) in many suburban neighbourhoods and smaller towns that were formerly almost
devoid of non-whites, but minorities also grew strongly (in numerical terms) in the inner
urban districts of first immigrant settlement. Simultaneously, white populations in many of
these urban centres declined, either because of counter-urbanisation or, in some parts of
[8]
the country, general regional decline.
While many skilled working class / lower middle class whites have moved out of the less
desirable areas of east, southeast and west London to suburban communities in
(respectively) Essex, Kent and Surrey, this has been tempered in central London by rapid
gentrification. However, in outlying industrial areas such as Newham, Woolwich and
Hounslow, which are not as attractive to young professionals, demographics have been
skewed to the extent that white people are in some cases a minority. This is a new
phenomenon in urban Britain.
Industrial towns and cities with large south Asian populations such as Oldham, Rochdale,
Nelson, Blackburn and Burnley in Lancashire, Bradford, Dewsbury and Keighley in West
Yorkshire, and Leicester in the Midlands also show evidence of white flight. Ethnic
minorities in these areas have experienced strong demographic growth (a result of young
age structure, the high fertility of some minority groups, and continued immigration),
gradually expanding to new districts adjacent to their areas of first settlement. Meanwhile,
white communities have been moving away from these older, less attractive urban centres
to suburbs and small towns. However, segregation is increasing has been open to debate,
with some arguing that as well as white families moving out of predominantly Asian areas,
Asians themselves have started to move away as they become more established and
affluent themselves.
[9]
Gentrification
The opposing social trend of wealthy social groups moving into an inner city area and
displacing the existing residents is called gentrification. In Cleveland, as reported on
Newshour with Jim Lehrer on PBS in 2003, wealthy homosexual couples have purchased
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and restored homes in formerly predominantly black neighborhoods. This study echoed an
[10]
, detailing similar black vs. gay (homophobia
earlier Ohio documentary titled Flag Wars
vs. racism) themes in the old silk stocking district of Columbus. In Milwaukee, restoration in
houses of a neglected neighborhood, pioneered by middle-income couples but followed by
wealthier cohorts as property values and prices soar, has made the Brewers Hill district a
[11][12]
In other cases, some inner city areas may witness a
byword for gentrification.
renaissance as a home for artists, which happens to be the case with the Silver Lake
neighbourhood of Los Angeles and (to a lesser extent) the Riverwest neighborhood of
Milwaukee.
Notes
1. ^ http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=459264
2. ^ Jacobson, Cardell K., Desegregation Rulings and Public Attitude Changes:
White Resistance or Resignation?, American Journal of Sociology, v. 84 n. 3, pp.
698-705.
3. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/08/13/national/main306205.shtml
4. ^ Pollard-Terry, Gayle. "Where It's Booming: Watts." Los Angeles Times, October
16, 2005. Page E1.
5. ^ http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-10-28-gop-west-1acover_x.htm
6. ^ http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB113236377590902105lMyQjAxMDE1MzEyOTMxNjkzWj.html
7. ^ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/specialreport/story.cfm?
c_id=1501094&objectid=10392647
8. ^ http://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/dps/case/CBCB/census2_part1.pdf
9. ^ Dominic Casciani, So who's right over segregation?, BBC News Magazine, 4
September 2006, accessed 21 September 2006
10. ^ http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2003/flagwars/special_gentrification.html
11. ^ http://www2.jsonline.com/news/metro/may01/hill27052601a.asp
12. ^ http://www.aux.uwm.edu/nho/in_the_news/
news_articles/04.04.24Making_brewershill_afford.pdf
References
●
Kruse, Kevin, White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism (Princeton
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●
University Press, Princeton, NJ)
Lupton, R. and Power, A. (2004) 'Minority Ethnic Groups in Britain'. CASE-Brookings
Census Brief No.2, London: LSE.
See also
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Asian-American
African-American
Caucasian race
Hispanic-American
Sundown town
Urban Decay
White American
White people
Xenophobia
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing factual verification | Articles with unsourced
statements | Demographic history of the United States | Human migration | Urban decay
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