White flight definition
White flight means an exodus of wealth and whites from the cities into suburban areas during the 1960s and 1970s. This trend was caused in part by government incentives to the middle class to relocate to suburbs, concern over safety and rising crime in cities, and fear that the quality of schools was falling in the wake of racial integration. Race riots, stemming from resistance to redevelopment projects and racial oppression, occurred in a number of large cities in the 1960s, and this fueled white flight. This trend contributed to a decline in the tax base and quality of city life and neighborhoods in these years.
Examples of White flight in a sentence
White flight further accelerated in Atlanta through ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇’▇ policies, along with the federal “freedom of choice” plan, which targeted school desegregation by allowing families to choose where to send their children to school.128 Many white residents moved to northern suburbs and those who remained in Atlanta paid for private school to segregate their children.