Journal Article

Educational Selection in the Migration of Southern Blacks, 1880–1990

Tolnay, Stewart E.

1998

Overview

During the twentieth century millions of African Americans have migrated from the South to northern cities. Contrasting descriptions of this migration stream have been presented in the literature—some emphasizing the rural origins and lack of schooling of migrants, others claiming that migrants were positively selected from the southern black population. This study uses the newly available Integrated Public Use Microdata Series to compare the educational characteristics of southern migrants with (1) the southern population they left behind and (2) the northern population they joined. Consistent with the expectations of migration theory, and previous evidence for specific time periods, the findings show that between 1880 and 1990 black migrants had significantly higher levels of education than the sedentary southern population and significantly lower levels of education than the northern-born population. Both differentials grew smaller as the century progressed.

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press,University of North Carolina Press,Oxford University Press
• Subject: 20th century / Adult Literacy / African American Community / African Americans / Black American people / Black history / Black people / Blacks / Censuses / Cities / Data analysis / Demographic aspects / Education / Educational Attainment / Educational opportunities / Factors / Human ecology and demography / Human migration / Internal Migration / Level of education / Long, Larry / Massey, Douglas S / Migrants / Migration / Migration (1880-1990) / Migration Patterns / Multivariate analysis / Neighborhoods / Nineteenth Century / Northern States / Population education / Population migration / Public use / Racial Distribution / Regression analysis / Ruggles, Steven / Rural areas / Rural to Urban Migration / Schooling / Social History / Sociodemographic Characteristics / Sociology / Sociology of migrations / Southern States / Twentieth Century / United States of America / United States, South / USA / Womens studies