Study shows slow decline of segregation in Memphis

As Black History Month progresses, issue of the slow decline of racial segregation in Memphis has become a topic of discussion.

The National Center for Education Statistics lists The U of M's black population as 40.3 percent and 50.1 percent white and the multiracial, Asian and Hispanic student populations are 6.5 percent, collectively.

Aram Goudsouzian, associate history professor, said there is plenty of genuine contact between people of different races on a daily basis.

"People who see racial connections not only tend to be good at building personal connections, they also become more successful and more able to understand each other's perspectives," he said.

 College campuses are prone to legal and cultural barriers such as high school dropouts, teen pregnancies and incarceration rates for black students, Goudsouzian said.

"It's foolish to say that all racial segregation is gone," he said.

In the past 40 years, Memphis has seen the rates of white-black segregation slowly decline from 68.8 percent in 1980 to 62.2 percent in the present, according to Brown University sociology professor John Logan. There has been no change in segregation in the Hispanic and Asian communities within the past four decades in Memphis, he said.

The ratio of white to black segregation is higher in Memphis than the national average of 56 percent, but Logan said African Americans remain the most segregated group out of other racial groups.

"The main cause of this is because of the various racial inequalities in small neighborhoods, which are tied to differences including crime rates and the quality of schools," he said.

Logan said though racial integration is shown in the workplace, public transportation and shopping, the exception is in neighborhoods, where he said is "so closely related to a person's preferred walks of life."

Susan O'Donovan, associate chair of the history department at The University of Memphis, moved to Georgia from Washington in 1970 and said prior to her arrival there she had never seen segregation.

"It really shocked and humbled me," she said. "Nowadays, I see more racial integration and I believe this is the way we need to go."

O'Donovan said she views people dividing from each other because of skin color as nothing more than "a re-enactment of the Jim Crow era."

"The South is not alone in having to figure out how to shed this toxic past because these are all national issues and problems," she said. "Segregation is manmade; it also can be un-manmade."