A Sense of Place: African Americans, Ethnogenesis and the Search for a “Black Mecca”

Abstract

Ethnogenesis is a powerful mechanism which outlines how ethnic groups are formed. It is a complex process which often involves factors such as migration, cultural exchanges, intermarriage as well as religion. Ethnogenesis is also described as the historical and contemporary emergence of a group of people who define themselves in relation to a common socio-cultural and historical heritage. Focusing on African American migration during the Great Migration and its subsequent reverse migration, this study uses the theme of ethnogenesis to describe how migration to northern cities were shaped by a desire for solidarity and opportunity in as much as an escape from racial violence in the South. In the current trend of reverse migration, this work contends that migration is built on a need for opportunity as well as a desire for connectedness to ancestral homelands in the South. Examining the emergence of the “New South” in the post Jim-Crow landscape, this work evaluates the cultural, social and economic appeal of current migration streams. Using data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) files, significant population declines are reported in former destinations like San Francisco, Chicago, and New York. Data also show southern resurgences in destinations like Lafayette, Louisiana and Charlotte, North Carolina. Likewise, there are also marked increases in new destinations like Las Vegas, Nevada and Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, Arizona. Additionally, data show that the Black population is growing in its diversity as well as density. People who identify as single-race Black, Black Latinx, and Black multiracial are a large (and growing) part of the Black population.