Blacks
The fact that the maps shows a large area of concentrated Black settlement exists
in 2010 confirms indirectly the fact that Los Angeles County is still quite highly
segregated between Blacks and Whites. (Scroll down to see three maps.) As
measured by the index of dissimilarity the county is the fourteenth most highly
segregated of the fifty U.S. metropolitan areas with the largest number of Blacks
http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Data/Report/report2.pdf Although its latest D-
score is .65, segregation has slowly but steadily diminished over the last half
century. Our calculations of the same statistic for 1960 showed Los Angeles
County at that time was the second most segregated metropolitan area in the
country, with .90 as its index of dissimilarity. Only Chicago was slightly more
segregated in 1960.
Change. The desegregation since 1960 was most directly the result of Blacks
moving slowly but steadily out of their segregated ghettos in 1960 and into what
had been mostly White suburban neighborhoods. The map shows the most recent
two decades of this out-movement.
The clusters of red dots shows that the major sources of the diminished numbers in
L.A. County are the old Black concentrations or ghettos that had been built up in
the days of segregated housing. In that period, from roughly 1920 through the
1960s, White society generally did not permit Blacks to own or rent housing
outside certain areas. Together with discrimination in the job market and typically
low levels of educational attainment, even Blacks who owned houses in these areas
often did not have the money to maintain the housing very well. This resulted in
increasingly poor and crowded housing in the ghettos. The largest ghetto was then
known as South Central, as it was focused along Central Avenue, though now it is
often referred to as South Los Angeles. Other segregated ghettos can be spotted on
the map as the larger clusters of red dots (neighborhoods of Black decline):
Pasadena and Altadena, Pacoima in the east San Fernando Valley, and old
formerly segregated neighborhoods in Monrovia, Long Beach, and San
Bernardino.
When segregation was weakening during the late 1960s, some middle-class Blacks
moved westward into the Baldwin Hills or Inglewood into homes vacated by
Whites. That is why on the map the largest cluster of red dots also includes on its
fringes these more upscale Black populations. A close look at the map in these
cities shows intricate patterns of change: Black populations in some neighborhood
increased since 1990, but in other neighborhoods Black numbers decreased.
An even larger shift of Blacks brought them into more distant places. This
dispersal really took off in the 1980s and, as the map shows, continued during the
last two decades. In most cases Blacks are living in apartments and single-family
houses formerly occupied by Whites. Blacks in the San Fernando Valley, for
example, have become widely distributed, though primarily in neighborhoods
where housing costs are relatively low or average. In more distant places like
Lancaster, Palmdale, Victorville, and Moreno Valley some Blacks were able to
purchase new homes, priced low because those locations meant long commutes to
jobs.
This change map demonstrates very powerfully the wide dispersal of Blacks in
Southern California in the last half-century. The dispersal has been made possible
by the increased educational attainment of Blacks and by reduced employment and
housing discrimination. Also important has been the fact that there have been many
families – mostly Mexican immigrants and their children -- eager to rent or buy
less expensive homes, many of which were in Black areas and owned by Blacks.
The income from such home sales helped make possible Black movement to
outlying areas.
We can highlight the importance of this Black suburbanization beyond Los
Angeles County. Between 1990 and 2010 the number of Blacks in the five-county
area increased by 1 percent. That small average change hides the fact that Blacks in
Los Angeles County decreased by 14 percent during this period.
Percentage and income. Part of the former ghetto of South Central can be
easily seen in on the map of Black percentage. However, the area that appears as
red on the map actually represents a westward shift of the old ghetto a half century
ago. The oldest and poorest housing had been east of Interstate 110, such as in
Watts. As most Black residents left that area, Mexicans and other Latinos arrived.
For several decades there has been a slowly diminishing percentage of Blacks in
that eastern section. The map of household income shows that Blacks still living in
this area are among the poorest Blacks in the L.A. area.
During this entire period most Whites had been moving westward or southward,
partly to find newer housing in the suburbs and partly to avoid living in mostly
Black neighborhoods. That latter motivation is usually called “White flight”. The
departure of Whites opened up housing in places to the west like Baldwin Hills,
Inglewood, Hawthorne, and Compton. In this way, the Black enclave has been
steadily moving westward and southward.
As the map shows, Blacks are no longer the majority in tracts east of Interstate 110
and from Watts northward because of the in-movement of Latinos. But there still is
a large area, shown in red, in which Blacks comprise at least 45 percent of the total
population. The western side of that red area represents mostly a middle-class
Black population, living in Windsor Hills, View Park, Baldwin Hills, and
Inglewood. Blacks have also developed a strong social, cultural, and commercial
focus in nearby Leimert Park.
Some of the old Black residential concentrations may have disappeared, apparently
the case with Pacoima and Monrovia, for example. However, ethnic enclaves
typically contain shops, churches, and professional offices catering to an ethnic
clientele, and it’s likely that many of these service and commercial functions
remain. In general, across the United States, suburbanization has meant the
residential dispersal of ethnic populations while many of their churches and social
and service institutions remain in the old ethnic neighborhoods.
The fact that some Blacks are dispersed into some higher-income neighborhoods
with Whites is evidence of the partial breaking down of residential segregation. For
example, such places are found around the fringe of the San Fernando Valley: in
parts of Chatsworth, Santa Clarita, Lake View Terrace, and in the still somewhat
hippy mountain community of Topanga.
Ventura and Orange have few Black residents compared to the other counties, a
fact that can be seen indirectly on the large number of tracts shaded gray on the
map of median income. The fact that so many tracts in these two counties contain
fewer than 100 Blacks is probably due at least in part to higher home prices in
those tracts. The greater Black population along the coast around Oxnard
represents in part families connected with the U.S. Navy bases at Port Hueneme
and Pt. Mugu.
See maps below.
Non-Hispanic BlackChange in Population
1990 - 2010
Major Road
County Boundary
GardenGrove
Palmdale
Lancaster
DowntownLA
L O S A N G E L E S
C O U N T Y
R I V E R S I D E
C O U N T Y
S A N B E R N A R D I N O
C O U N T Y
LongBeach
Walnut
Irvine
LagunaHills
Temecula
Monrovia
Santa Clarita
Oxnard
S A N D I E G O C O U N T Y
LomaLinda
Victorville
Hesperia
S a n t a M o n i c a M o u n t a i n s
O R A N G E
C O U N T Y
SantaMonica South
Central
Cerritos
Hawthorne
V E N T U R A
C O U N T Y
Riverside
MorenoValley
Corona
Fontana SanBernardinoSan Dimas
1 Dot represents 50 Persons
Gain
Loss
Change in Blacks
S a n G a b r i e l M o u n t a i n s
S a n F e r n a n d o V a l l e y
Simi Valley
Five-county 2010 population of Non-Hispanic Blacks is 1,170,986 and change in that population between 1990 and 2010 is an increase of 11,973.Census 2010 race data are from SF1. 1990 estimates of racepopulation in 2010 tracts are based on the 1990 Fullcount table created by John R. Logan, Zengwang Xu, and Brian Stults. http://www.s4.brown.edu/us2010/Researcher/Bridging.htm
10 20 Miles0
Castaic
Altadena
Pasadena
Pacoima
Inglewood
BaldwinHills
Watts
Compton
Rialto
Ontario
Chino
Perris
101
33
126
126
138
138
118
170
9191
22
91
91
7474
79
79
60
71
73
60
1
1
14
23
1
101
101
395
210
110
605
405
405
710
405
5
5
5
5
10 10
210210
60
57
N2
14
138
1818
215
215105
10
15
15
15
241
45.6 - 89.8
26.8 - 45.5
16.9 - 26.7
9.0 - 16.8
3.1 - 8.9
0.8 - 3.0
0.0 - 0.7
Percent Non-Hispanic Black
10 20 Miles0
Major Road
County Boundary
Inglewood
Hawthorne
VAAdmin.
Watts
Compton
Ontario
Chino
Perris
MorenoValley
Palmdale
Lancaster
Altadena
DowntownLA
L O S A N G E L E S
C O U N T Y
R I V E R S I D E
C O U N T Y
S A N B E R N A R D I N O
C O U N T Y
LongBeach
SealBeach
PasadenaMonrovia
Pomona
Ventura
PortHueneme
PointMugu
S A N D I E G O C O U N T Y
SanBernardino
Victorville
Adelanto
S a n t a M o n i c a M o u n t a i n s
O R A N G E
C O U N T Y
BaldwinHills
Pacoima
Castaic
V E N T U R A
C O U N T Y
Riverside
Rialto
Fontana
Non-Hispanic BlackPercent of Population
2010
S a n G a b r i e l M o u n t a i n s
Fewer than 10 Non-Hispanic Blacks
75
112
188
375
1127
1500
375
98
Five-county population of Non-Hispanic Black or African American of a single race only is 1,170,986.Bar length indicates proportion of all valid tracts included in a category. In most cases a category includes 2, 3, 5, 10, 30, 40, or 50 percent of the included tracts. The bar length of the excluded tracts is not related to its tract count.
Number of Tracts
101
33
126
126
138
138
118
170
91 91
22
91
91
7474
79
79
60
71
73
60
1
1
14
23
1
101
101
395
210
110 605
405
405
710
405 5
5
5
5
10 10
210
60
57
N2
14
138
1818
215
215
105
10
15
15
15
241
134,465 - 250,000+
108,381 - 134,464
84,298 - 108,380
47,227 - 84,297
17,739 - 47,226
2500.0 - 17,738
Income in Dollars
Major Road
County Boundary
Inglewood
Topanga
Watts
Compton
ChinoHills
Perris
Temecula
MorenoValley
Palmdale
Lancaster
Altadena
DowntownLA
L O S A N G E L E S
C O U N T Y
R I V E R S I D E
C O U N T Y
S A N B E R N A R D I N O
C O U N T Y
LongBeach
Pasadena
Monrovia
Pomona
Ventura
PortHueneme
PointMugu
S A N D I E G O C O U N T Y
SanBernardino
Victorville
Apple Valley
S a n t a M o n i c a M o u n t a i n s
O R A N G E
C O U N T Y
BaldwinHills
Chatsworth
Lake ViewTerrace
Castaic
V E N T U R A
C O U N T Y
Riverside
Fontana
BlackMedian Household Income
2008 - 2012
S a n G a b r i e l M o u n t a i n s
Fewer than 100 Blacks
10 20 Miles0
105
105
210
631
842
210
1817
Number of Tracts
Bar length indicates proportion of all valid tracts included in a category. In most cases a category includes 2, 3, 5, 10, 30, 40, or 50 percent of the included tracts. The bar length of the excluded tracts is not related to its tract count.
101
33
126
126
138
138
118
170
91 91
22
91
91
7474
79
79
60
71
73
60
1
1
14
23
1
101
101
395
210
110 605
405
405
710
405
5
5
5
5
10 10
210
60
57
N2
14
138
1818
215
215
105
10
15
15
15
241
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