The Interaction between Place and Power: Residential Segregation and African American Status Attainment

Cicely Sharpe, U.S. Census Bureau

This analysis examines the impact of racial residential segregation on African American status attainment and how that relationship varies by regional context. Using tract-level data from the 1990 U.S. Census Bureau, I examine two multiple regression models of status attainment for the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Boston, and Atlanta. Three neighborhood characteristics are used: percent black, class composition, and location in the central city or the suburbs. Racial segregation is found to affect black status attainment differently across the metropolitan regions of Detroit, Boston, and Atlanta. The interaction models reveal that racial segregation is almost always dependent upon the class composition of the neighborhood and the location of the neighborhood in the central city or the suburbs. Racial segregation is in some cases inconsequential for black status attainment. The importance of considering regional and neighborhood context when examining the impact of racial segregation on black status attainment is confirmed.