The term “white flight” has a strong negative connotation in polite society. It is a term often used to tar the motives of my father’s generation who, after returning from service in WWII, chose to live in the suburbs rather than return to the confines of the cities in which they had grown up. Their motives were many; however, as white flight continued throughout the ‘50s and ‘60s, there is no question that it was driven by the knowledge that city neighborhoods that were formerly inhabitable were falling into disarray with the influx of blacks that had moved there. To say otherwise, flies in the face of what was observed at the time and exists today in tangible form in cities like Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, Newark, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, to name a few.
In defense of white flight
A mythology has emerged that blames white flight for the impoverishment of black communities, which should be soundly rejected as false.
