Erasure, convergence, and the great divide: Trends in racial disparity in Middletown

Although Robert and Helen Lynd later identified the color line as the deepest. division Separating Middletown's people, data on the city's black population were purposely excluded from their analysis, and therefore blacks are not, represented ill the 1920s baseline which Middletown provides for subsequent community studies. Indeed, the reader must simply take the Lynds' word for the importance of the racial divide, for their decision to restrict their analysis to white citizens means that. its dimensions remain unspecified save for a few illustrative examples. Yet the erasure is neither total nor Final. Many characteristics of the city's black population in the early decades of the century are retrievable, some via census and other statistical data and others through historical sources and retrospective interviews. This paper draws upon census data to estimate the dimensions of Middletown's racial divide over the years. For the period 1977-1999, the census data are supplemented by survey data front high school students, and trends in racial differentiation in selected student attitudes are examined. Findings are mixed and only partially support the model Of convergence, or a trend of declining racial differentiation in Middletown. For many indicators, including several with long-term or intergenerational effects, continued racial disparity is apparent. Substantial vestiges of the "great divide" remain, and there seems little prospect. of their pending resolution.