HISTORICAL RACIAL CONTEXTS AND CONTEMPORARY SPATIAL DIFFERENCES IN RACIAL INEQUALITY

Research examining regional variation in the impact of racial concentration on black-white economic inequality assumes that the American South is distinct from the non-South because of its slavery history. However, slavery's influence on the relationship has not been directly examined nor has it been adequately theorized within the economic inequality literature. We assess whether the link between contemporary black concentration and poverty disparities is structured by historical racial context. We find that while there is contemporary racial inequality throughout the United States, inequality-generating processes vary spatially and in ways that are tied to the local historical racial context.