Plausibility check- one or more southern US states remain black majority throughout the 20th century
Feb 15, 2024 23:17:44 GMT
American hist likes this
Post by raharris1973 on Feb 15, 2024 23:17:44 GMT
Could one or more US southern states have remained black majority into the 20th century, and throughout the 20th century?
In the aftermath of the US Civil War, in the 19th century, looking at population statistics of 1870, South Carolina had a black majority in the neighborhood of at least around 60%. Mississippi a black majority in the mid to high 50 percents. And Louisiana, a fleeting black majority of just over 50.5 to 51%.
Louisiana had turned majority white by some point in the 1880s, certainly by 1890. South Carolina, by some fairly early point in the 20th century, if not 1900 itself. Mississippi, by some point in the second quarter if the 20th century.
Alabama, Georgia and Florida had very large black minorities, approaching the 50% in the 1870 timeframe, with the percentage share of black minorities gradually shrinking as one moves out of the deep southeast core to Arkansas, and to Texas and the upper south like Virginia and North Carolina and Tennessee.
Could any of those three black-majority as of 1870 states have kept their black majority permanently, or any of those deep south close ones have acquired and retained black majority?
If not, why not?
If black majorities existed in any of these states in the middle third of the 20th century or the third quarter of it, would that demographic majority status have hastened the end of Jim Crow segregation and the restoration of black franchise rights? Or would it have strengthened massive resistance by the substantial, but outnumbered, white minority and delayed the end of Jim Crow segregation and the restoration of black franchise rights?
I go back to the question of if this geographic-demographic combination resulting in black majority large states [so no cheating by making DC or an urban core when black majority a state, or the Virgin Islands a state, or arranging for annexation of a Caribbean island as a state] is even plausible within America's democratic capitalist economic political system as it was set up by the end of the Civil War.
Given the grossly uneven distribution of financial and landed property and other capital resources, and educational attainment, and typically quite different occupational profiles of black and white Americans, decade after decade in the late 19th century and 20th century, is there a ratio of black residents to white residents in a jurisdiction on the scale of a US state that is not likely to stay sustained for more than few years at a time? Or could an equilibrium ratio involving a majority, or super-majority of black residents and voters and even office-holders in one or more states have become self-sustaining for decades on end?
In the aftermath of the US Civil War, in the 19th century, looking at population statistics of 1870, South Carolina had a black majority in the neighborhood of at least around 60%. Mississippi a black majority in the mid to high 50 percents. And Louisiana, a fleeting black majority of just over 50.5 to 51%.
Louisiana had turned majority white by some point in the 1880s, certainly by 1890. South Carolina, by some fairly early point in the 20th century, if not 1900 itself. Mississippi, by some point in the second quarter if the 20th century.
Alabama, Georgia and Florida had very large black minorities, approaching the 50% in the 1870 timeframe, with the percentage share of black minorities gradually shrinking as one moves out of the deep southeast core to Arkansas, and to Texas and the upper south like Virginia and North Carolina and Tennessee.
Could any of those three black-majority as of 1870 states have kept their black majority permanently, or any of those deep south close ones have acquired and retained black majority?
If not, why not?
If black majorities existed in any of these states in the middle third of the 20th century or the third quarter of it, would that demographic majority status have hastened the end of Jim Crow segregation and the restoration of black franchise rights? Or would it have strengthened massive resistance by the substantial, but outnumbered, white minority and delayed the end of Jim Crow segregation and the restoration of black franchise rights?
I go back to the question of if this geographic-demographic combination resulting in black majority large states [so no cheating by making DC or an urban core when black majority a state, or the Virgin Islands a state, or arranging for annexation of a Caribbean island as a state] is even plausible within America's democratic capitalist economic political system as it was set up by the end of the Civil War.
Given the grossly uneven distribution of financial and landed property and other capital resources, and educational attainment, and typically quite different occupational profiles of black and white Americans, decade after decade in the late 19th century and 20th century, is there a ratio of black residents to white residents in a jurisdiction on the scale of a US state that is not likely to stay sustained for more than few years at a time? Or could an equilibrium ratio involving a majority, or super-majority of black residents and voters and even office-holders in one or more states have become self-sustaining for decades on end?
