Politics
Politics

Atlanta-area counties experiencing big racial shifts

Elaine Davis-Nickens, Chair of the Rockdale County Democratic Party, speaks during a general meeting at Rockdale County Democratic Party office in Conyers on Saturday, May 23, 2015.

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Credit: Hyosub Shin

Elaine Davis-Nickens, Chair of the Rockdale County Democratic Party, speaks during a general meeting at Rockdale County Democratic Party office in Conyers on Saturday, May 23, 2015.
By
May 27, 2015

Four Georgia counties are experiencing big racial shifts amid the reversal of the 20th century's Great Migration, when millions of blacks moved North to escape discrimination and find work.

Rockdale, Henry, Douglas and Gwinnett counties hold the top four rankings among large counties nationwide for their percentage-point losses of white residents between 2000 and 2013, a new Pew Research Center study shows.

Many blacks are now moving South to be near family and friends, find affordable homes and send their children to good schools. And that migration is coinciding with political changes and some friction.

Click here to read The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s report on this development.

About the Author

Jeremy Redmon is an award-winning journalist, essayist and educator with more than three decades of experience reporting for newspapers. He has written for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution since 2005.

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