Race and Place

A striking but little recognized change in race relations during the past two decades has seen the declining levels of racial segregation in most of America’s major metropolitan areas. More American cities are beginning to have black and white residents. An integral component of this decline in residential segregation has been the large-scale movement of blacks to the suburbs. This book focuses on the attitudes and behavior of African Americans and whites. Will whites’ attitudes about blacks and blacks’ attitudes toward whites change if they are living in integrated neighborhoods rather than apart from one another? Are black suburbanites more likely to share the views of their fellow white suburbanites or of their fellow African Americans in the central city? Will residential integration and new patterns of race in the suburbs break down divisions between blacks and whites in their views of local public services?