Race and Residence: The Shifting Basis of American Race Relations

• Date: 01 January 1979
• Author: Wade Clark Roof
• Published date: 01 January 1979
• DOI: 10.1177/000271627944100102
• Subject Matter: Articles

1

Race

and

Residence:

The

Shifting

Basis

of

American

Race

Relations

BY

WADE

CLARK

ROOF

ABSTRACT:

Racially-segregated

ghettos

evolved

in

the

early

decades

of

this

century,

first

in

northern

cities

and

later

throughout

the

nation.

Levels

of urban

residential

segregation

for

blacks

have

remained

high

over

the

years

and—unlike

the

earlier

pattern

for

European

immigrants—have

not

declined

as

blacks

have

made

economic

progress.

Despite

modest

declines

in

segregation

in

the

sixties,

metropolitan

decline

in

the

seventies

and

structural

shifts

in

employment

conditions

for

blacks

have

resulted

in

growing

concern

for

problems

of de

facto

segregation.

Mounting

attention

to

hous-

ing

discrimination

and

the

residential

basis

of

current

black-

white

tensions

are

discussed.

Wade

Clark

Roof

is

Associate

Professor

of

Sociology

at

the

University

of

Mas-

sachusetts,

Amherst.

Educated

at

Wofford

College,

Yale

University,

and

the

Univer-

sity

of

North

Carolina,

he is

the

author

of

numerous

publications

on

race

rela-

tions,

sociology

of

religion,

and

contemporary

American

society.

ANNALS,

AAPSS,

441,

Jan.

1979