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Using historical census microdata, we present a unique analysis of racial and gender disparities in destination selection and an exploration of hypotheses regarding tied migration in the historical context of the Great Migration. Black migrants were more likely to move to metropolitan areas and central cities throughout the period, while white migrants were more likely to locate in nonmetropolitan and farm destinations. Gender differences were largely dependent on marital status. Consistent with the "tied-migration " thesis, married women had destination outcomes that were similar to those of men, whereas single women had a greater propensity to reside in metropolitan locations where economic opportunities for women were more plentiful.
Early in the twentieth century, the southern population of the United States initiated a migration stream that would transform the region and the nation. During this "Great Migration," which continued from roughly 1910 through 1970, millions of southerners, black and white alike, left their region of birth and headed north or west in search of greater social and economic opportunities for themselves and their children (e.g., Berry 2000; Gregory 1989; Grossman 1989; Marks 1989; Trotter 1991). The demographic consequences were especially profound for blacks. At the outset of this exodus, nearly 90% of this country's black population lived within rural areas of the South (Jones 1993). By its culmination, the majority of American blacks lived in urban areas within and beyond the southern states (U.S. Census Bureau 2002). While their migration was less dramatic in scope, southern whites also participated in an urbanizing trend that would shape the economic and cultural milieu within their northern and western destinations (Berry 2000; Gregory 1989). Although a large body of literature has described the historical and demographic importance of the Great Migration, relatively little research has explored the factors that affected the migrants' selection of destinations or how these influences changed over time.
Migration decisions, including the choice of destinations, are undoubtedly made under various structural constraints (Galle and Taeuber 1966; Stouffer 1940, 1960). Moreover, individual characteristics, which affect both the migrant's experiences within the community of origin and perspectives on potential communities of destination, are also associated with these constraints. As a result, given that large proportions of both black and white southern men and women relocated during...