There was an overall decline in the number of African-American middle-class households in the region, however, the larger story is the shift of the African-American middle class out of Detroit to the suburbs. Since 2000, there has been a dramatic shift in the number and location of the region’s middle-class households. Census, 2000 and American Community Survey, 2013-2017 The number of households in the city is increasing, and there are early indications that the number of middle-class households is beginning to increase. That would require an increase of 27,700 African-American middle-class households in Detroit.įor the first time in decades, Detroit is poised for population growth. To ensure that Detroit is growing equitably, it is important that the share of middle-class African Americans is brought in line with that of the region, as well. To bring Detroit’s share of middle-class households in line with the regional share, an additional 33,800 middle-class households of all races would be needed. In the first decade of this century, that trend reversed, with population decline in the city led by a shrinking African-American middle class. Though some of this decrease was due to declines in household size, much of it can be attributed to the movement of the African-American middle class out of the city to nearby suburbs.Ĭurrently, 25% of Detroit’s households can be considered middle class. This compares to 38% in the larger Metro Detroit region. Older industrial cities such as Detroit experienced significant population losses as white households moved to the suburbs. In the years following World War II, the country began an era of widespread suburbanization. Although African-American manufacturing workers faced discrimination in hiring and promotions, Detroit’s economy still generated large numbers of good-paying jobs for blue-collar workers of all races. cities, became a magnet for African Americans, many of whom were moving north as part of the Great Migration in search of jobs. Beginning in the early 1900s, Detroit, like many other major U.S. 'Detroit ranks 19th in the rate of growth of households in middle-class census tracts.'ĭetroit was especially important to the rise of the African-American middle class. This translates to household incomes between $46,100 and $115,300 per year. Detroit Future City (DFC) defines a middle-class household as one having an income between 80% and 200% of the national median household income. In doing so, it reveals the painful truth of the decisions that black mothers must make to ensure the safety, well-being, and future prospects of their children.Across the nation, there are more than 45 million middle-class households, of which 4.6 million are headed by African Americans. At the intersection of race, ethnicity, gender, work, family, and culture, Mothering While Black sheds light on the exclusion of African American middle-class mothers from the dominant cultural experience of middle-class motherhood. These limitations become apparent when Dow considers how these mothers apply different parenting strategies for black boys and for black girls, and how they navigate different expectations about breadwinning and childrearing from the African American community. Sociologist Dawn Marie Dow shows how the frameworks typically used to research middle-class families focus on white mothers’ experiences, inadequately capturing the experiences of African American middle- and upper-middle-class mothers. Mothering While Black examines the complex lives of the African American middle class-in particular, black mothers and the strategies they use to raise their children to maintain class status while simultaneously defining and protecting their children’s “authentically black” identities.

Black upper middle class