January 19, 2009 at 12:00 am #20898
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After slavery when traditionally rural southern blacks started moving north it was to take manufacturing jobs that were then located within major cities; auto plants in Detroit for example. At this point in history the inner cities weren’t poor. It was “white flight” of the middle class from these areas and then the failure of the manufacturing sector in the U.S. that turned our downtowns into ghettos. Many blacks stay in the inner city because they lack the resources to move and/or because they fear they would be targeted for their race if they moved to the suburbs or rural towns.