Spatial isolation of a black underclass: An American case study

One theory explaining worsening social conditions among the US ghetto poor is that an exodus of upwardly mobile families deprived poor neighbourhoods of middle‐class institutions and role models. An analysis of data for one metropolitan area documents that class segregation among blacks is not new and did not increase sharply during the 1970s when ghetto conditions worsened. The neighbourhoods of poor black children did not experience uniformly dramatic declines in the availability of persons with middle‐class attributes. A policy analysis based on the effects of middle‐class flight is not justified by the evidence. Ghetto conditions were more influenced by general social and economic trends.