IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v49y2012i4p845-860.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The ‘Black Metropolis’ Revisited

Author

Listed:
  • Robert L. Boyd

Abstract

The conventional wisdom on the Black metropolis of the early 20th century holds that urban Black communities in the South lagged far behind their counterparts in the North in terms of providing opportunities for Blacks to enter occupations that were associated with Blacks’ socioeconomic progress. Yet, analyses of census data in the present study offer mixed support for this wisdom. The odds of Black participation in art, show business, public service and professions were, as expected, lower in the urban South. Yet surprisingly, the odds of Black participation in most entrepreneurial ventures were approximately similar in the urban South and urban North. The results imply that the conventional wisdom should be modified to indicate that, at the beginning of the Great Migration, the benefits to Blacks of the large Black communities of northern cities were more cultural and political than economic.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert L. Boyd, 2012. "The ‘Black Metropolis’ Revisited," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(4), pages 845-860, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:49:y:2012:i:4:p:845-860
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098011404937
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098011404937
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098011404937?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Franklin Wilson, 1975. "The ecology of a black business district," The Review of Black Political Economy, Springer;National Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 353-375, June.
    2. Amos Hawley, 1972. "Population density and the city," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 9(4), pages 521-529, November.
    3. Ingham, John N., 2003. "Building Businesses, Creating Communities: Residential Segregation and the Growth of African American Business in Southern Cities, 1880–1915," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 77(4), pages 639-665, January.
    4. Vedder, Richard K. & Gallaway, Lowell, 1992. "Racial Differences in Unemployment in the United States, 1890–1990," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(03), pages 696-702, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert L. Boyd, 2009. "Urban Locations of Eminent Black Entrepreneurs in the United States," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 46(10), pages 2061-2078, September.
    2. Robert l. Boyd, 2015. "The ‘Black Metropolis' in the American Urban System of the Early Twentieth Century: Harlem, Bronzeville and Beyond," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 129-144, January.
    3. Cervero, Robert & Bosselmann, Peter, 1994. "An Evaluation of the Market Potential for Transit-Oriented Development Using Visual Simulation Techniques," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8qf9116b, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Fairchild, Gregory B., 2008. "Residential segregation influences on the likelihood of black and white self-employment," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 46-74, January.
    5. Evelyn Kitagawa, 1977. "On Mortallty," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 14(4), pages 381-389, November.
    6. Robert L. Boyd, 2005. "Black Musicians in Northern US Cities during the Early 20th Century: A Test of the Critical Mass Hypothesis of Urban Sub-culture Theory," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(13), pages 2363-2370, December.
    7. Boyd, Robert L., 2012. "The organization of an ethnic economy: Urban black communities in the early twentieth century," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 633-641.
    8. Gagnon, Julien & Geloso, Vincent & Isabelle, Maripier, 2023. "The incubated revolution: Education, cohort effects, and the linguistic wage gap in Quebec during the 20th century," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 327-349.
    9. Shaw, John Gordon, 1994. "Transit, Density, and Residential Satisfaction," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt8xk3c9z7, University of California Transportation Center.
    10. Boyd, Robert L., 2005. "Race, gender, and survivalist entrepreneurship in large northern cities during the Great Depression," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 331-339, May.
    11. Shaw, John G., 1994. "Transit, Density, and Residential Satisfaction," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt5xs0r6vz, University of California Transportation Center.
    12. Boyd, Robert L., 2008. "Trends in the occupations of eminent black entrepreneurs in the United States," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2390-2398, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:49:y:2012:i:4:p:845-860. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.