Despite stereotypes and history that depict the south as racist, the north is by far more segregated than the south. As a matter of fact the northeast and midwest are the most segregated areas in the United States. In the large urban cities of the north, African American populations remain mostly in the neighborhoods that were left to them as a result of “white flight” that took place after the civil rights movements and the riots of the 1960s.

As blacks moved to new neighborhoods, whites moved further away to avoid forced school integration and the threat of dropping property values. Detroit is the most extreme example of this. It has become the most segregated metropolitan area in the nation. While 88% of the city’s population is Black, more than 95% of it’s suburban population is White.

Least Segregated Metro Cities

Albuquerque, NM

Orange County, CA

Tucson, AZ

San Jose, CA

Salt Lake City

McAllen, TX

Phoenix

Las Vegas

Honolulu

10. Riverside, CA

Most Segregated Metro Cities

1.Detroit

Gary, IN

Milwaukee

Chicago

Cleveland

Buffalo

Newark, NJ

New York

Cincinnati

10. St. Louis

The South - The New North

In the nineteenth century, most free people who left the South migrated to the northern states in search of a better life. They clustered in small communities in the larger cities and helped establish the Black urban North.

During what is known as the First Great Migration some 1.5 million Black people moved north between 1916 and 1930. The Second Great Migration, between 1940 and 1970, brought 5 million Black Southerners North and West.

By 1970, 47 percent of the nation's African Americans lived outside the South, and more than 80 percent were in urban areas. That’s when the migration patterns reversed and Blacks began returning south in large numbers.

As they returned south, many followed the same paths that their predecessors used when they migrated north. Theses routes were along the old railroad routes: from eastern cities toward the Carolinas; from Ohio and Michigan cities toward Alabama; from Chicago toward Mississippi; and from Los Angeles toward East Texas.

Although some African-American migrants were returning home, many were actually born in the North and were seeking economic opportunities rather than familial ties. They headed in large numbers for rapidly growing metropolitan areas such as Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, and Nashville.

MAP: African Americans Going South

The map below shows the migration patterns from the northern states and California to The South between 1995 and 2000.

8 Mile road has long served as a cultural and racial dividing line between the predominantly poor African-American city of Detroit and its wealthier, predominantly white northern suburbs. Besides the Detroit suburbs of Southfield and Oak Park, the counties north of 8 mile road; Oakland and Macomb are still predominately white and wealthy.

For example the city of Detroit whose population was 81.55% African-American, south of the city limit (8 mile rd) had a median family income was $33,853, and 26.1% of the population lived below the poverty line. In contrast North of the city limit the median family income for Oakland County, whose population was 82.75% white, was $75,540, and only 5.5% of residents lived below the poverty line.

Detriot - 8 Mile Road

The south side of 8 Mile Road (which is Detroit), is the location of many gentleman's clubs, as Oakland County (north of 8 Mile Road) prohibits those types of clubs within its borders.

Search BlackDemographics.com

How Black is Black America

The Black/African American population is one of the most unique groups in the United States. Almost all descendants of American slaves are mixed with some European and Native American blood. Population researchers at Penn State University studied DNA samples from groups of African Americans throughout the US, West Africa, and Europe, to answer the question; How African are African Americans?

What they discovered contradicts some of the previous studies on the subject where it was thought that Blacks were about 30% white. They conclude that the average Black American is 17-18% white. But this is an average and it depends on the location. When geography is factored in we find that there is a wide range of mixed blood. The most African are those of the Gullah Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. This is also a logical conclusion based on the history of these Islands. Africans who were imported here were rice farmers who as slaves outnumbered whites by the thousands. Because of their large numbers and the absence of whites they were able to keep some of their African culture. This accounts for their “Caribbean” sounding accents and more prevalent West African features. The study concludes the Gullah are only 3-4% white. On the mainland in the South Carolina “Low Country” and near Charleston the percentages move up to about 12% which is still lower than average.

On the other end of the same spectrum Southern Louisiana (New Orleans) And cities on the West coast had some of the highest averages of white DNA at 23-26%. This is also not a surprise, knowing the history of these regions. Southern Louisiana was once settled by the French and Spanish. There are a large numbers of Blacks here who are more than 50% white. Many of whom would not be recognized as Black by most Americans. Migrants from this area moved in large numbers to the west coast rather than the industrialized north during the two great migrations. Here they mixed even more giving us the percentages at the higher end.

It was also discovered that 10% of Black Americans are more than 50% white. And according to the same study there are 50 million whites with at least one Black ancestor. That means about 70% of whites have no Black ancestor. In comparison, Mexican Americans in New Mexico and Colorado where 3% Black and 58% white on average.

*Department of Anthropology - College of the Liberal Arts - Penn State University 1997-2002