THE PROCESS OF

In recent years there has been much discussion in academic and popular literature about the increase in the suburbanization of the black population. While some of the patterns and trends have been documented, no study has analyzed in a disaggregated way the process by which black suburbanization takes place, that is, which blacks move, to what type neighborhoods they move, and in what patterns they settle in the metropolitan area. The author analyzes this process in the context of goals for equal opportunity and concludes that the black suburbanization that is occurring represents more of a resegregation of blacks in particular sectors of suburbia than dispersal in an open housing market. Virtually all of the academic and professional literature on the subject of black suburbanization argues in favor of residential desegregation in the suburbs. Proponents of suburban desegrega-tion base their arguments on the proposition that there are two major benefits to be gained by blacks: (1) better housing oppor-tunities and (2) more stable and higher-paying job opportunities. Anthony Downs (1973) and Paul Davidoff et al. (1971) are particularly emphatic about housing opportunities. They observe that there are a number of suburban communities that have moderate-cost housing affordable by a large number of blacks, and urge that new construction in the suburbs include housing for low- _ and moderate-income families, many of whom will be black