The Great Migration to the North and the “Black Metropolis” of the early twentieth century: A reevaluation of the role of Black community size

•Supposedly, large Black populations created a Black Metropolis in northern cities.•Census data on employment in 22 Black Metropolis occupations are analyzed.•In most cases Black population size was unrelated to Blacks’ employment in 1930.•Little evidence shows that the Great Migration created a Black Metropolis.

By some accounts, large Black populations in northern cities aided Blacks’ employment in occupations of the “Black Metropolis” at the start of the Great Migration. Yet, the present study, analyzing Census data, refutes these accounts. Blacks’ odds of employment in such occupations – for example, mass media and cultural expression – were often greatest in major northern cities with the smallest Black populations, consistent with the proposition that small and stable minority communities avoid intense discrimination. Overall, however, there is little evidence that Black population size substantially affected Blacks’ employment in Black Metropolis occupations.