White Flight

Jerome E. Morris

The phenomenon known as “White flight” is commonly associated with the demographic shifting of working- and middle-class White U.S. citizens from the urban areas of the United States to outlying suburbs and exurbs. According to geo graphers, sociologists, economists, political scientists, and other researchers, White flight partly contributed to the concentration of African American people in urban communities, that resulted in communities and schools that became predominantly African American in a short span of time. This entry looks at the historical context of White flight and its consequences for African American education. White flight began to occur shortly after World War II, a time in which there was a squeeze on properties located in major urban areas, and U.S. prosperity after the war facilitated the rise of suburbs. During this time (shortly after 1945), African American people were in the midst of the Second Great Black Migration, and more than ...

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