Racial Occupational Inequality in Southern Metropolitan Areas, 1940--1980: Revisiting the Visibility-Discrimiration Hypothesis

Abstract

This article examines racial occupational inequality in southern metropolitan areas over the forty-year period beginning in 1940 and ending in 1980. Remarkable stability in inequality between blacks and whites is observed between 1940 and 1970, followed by a substantial decline in inequality between 1970 and 1980. Additionally, the relationship between the relative size of the minority population and racial occupational inequality was observed to be strongly positive and significant in separate analyses for each of the five decades, including 1980, after inequality had declined sharply. Similar results were obtained from a pooled, cross-sectional time-series analysis.