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White Flight

Generally, “White flight” refers to the withdrawal of Whites from desegregating institutions, such as schools, school systems, or residential communities, due to the consideration and implementation of school desegregation plans. The concept of White flight is controversial because the loss of White students in school systems is fairly easy to document, whereas the reasons for their departures are not generally easy to identify or isolate. This entry reviews the phenomenon and scholarly discussion about its causes.

Early Research

During the 1960s and 1970s, city school systems in particular lost a large percentage of White students. According to researchers, the primary reason for White flight was dissatisfaction with the prospect of busing (Armor 1995; Coleman, Kelly, & Moore, 1975). The opposition of urban White families to school desegregation and busing motivated them to escape to private and/or religious schools or move to the suburbs.

At the same time, advocates of desegregation viewed the loss in White enrollments as being due to historical trends of suburbanization and demographic factors, especially the drop in the White birthrate (Orfield & Eaton, 1996; Pettigrew & Green, 1976). In a series of point-counterpoint academic articles, these researchers battled over the causes of declines in enrollment. While the researchers never agreed on the precise causes of White Flight, they did agree that metropolitan plans for school desegregation offered the best hope of minimizing White Flight because they included the White suburbs.

One study of school desegregation reported racial enrollment trends from 1968 to 1973 in the 67 largest central-city school districts in the nation (Coleman et al., 1975). The report concluded that Whites fled central cities not only for demographic reasons, such as the percentage of Blacks and size of school systems, but also due to school desegregation plans. As part of the process, White parents expressed concerns about declining educational quality, racial conflict, violence, value conflicts, and general disruption in the desegregation process. This study generated a host of follow-up analyses, including critical analyses that were summarized elsewhere (Robin & Bosco, 1976).

More Recent Studies

A great deal of quantitative empirical research on White Flight has taken place since the mid-1970s. One type of analysis, called “no-show” analysis, compares actual White enrollment, after the implementation of desegregation plans, to projected White enrollment. For example, one study of school desegregation litigation reported that the “no-show” rates were 45% in Boston, 42% in Savannah-Chatham County, 52% in Baton Rouge, and 56% in California, where Whites were assigned to formerly minority schools (Rossell, 1997). Put another way, this indicates that about half of Whites who were assigned to “Black” schools did not remain in public school systems immediately after the implementation of desegregation plans. The reports concluded that the percentage of minority students, not whether a plan involved metropolitan areas or urban districts, was the major factor affecting the extent of White Flight.

Analyzing a national probability sample of 600 school systems, another study found that school systems that had mandatory school desegregation plans lost one-third more White students than those that never had plans (Rossell & Armor, 1996). In addition, the study reported that districts with voluntary-only plans experienced less than 3% White enrollment loss, a rate that is not statistically significant. Similarly, the study noted that controlled-choice plans had enrollment loss almost as high as mandatory plans.

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