NDLI: A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Saperstein, Aliya Gullickson, Aaron
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	Racial distinctions in the United States have long been characterized as uniquely rigid and governed by strict rules of descent, particularly along the black-white boundary. This is often contrasted with countries, such as Brazil, that recognize “mixed” or intermediate racial categories and allow for more fluidity or ambiguity in racial classification. Recently released longitudinal data from the IPUMS Linked Representative Samples, and the brief inclusion of a “mulatto” category in the U.S. Census, allow us to subject this generally accepted wisdom to empirical test for the 1870–1920 period. We find substantial fluidity in black-mulatto classification between censuses—including notable “downward” racial mobility. Using person fixed-effects models, we also find evidence that among Southern men, the likelihood of being classified as mulatto was related to intercensal changes in occupational status. These findings have implications for studies of race and inequality in the United States, cross-national research on racial classification schemes in the Americas, and for how demographers collect and interpret racial data.
Starting Page	1921
Ending Page	1942
Page Count	22
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00703370
Journal	Demography
Volume Number	50
Issue Number	5
e-ISSN	15337790
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2013-04-20
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Race Racial boundaries Stratification Occupational mobility Survey measurement Demography Sociology Population Economics Medicine/Public Health Geography (general)
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Demography

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era

Racial boundary formation at the dawn of jim crow: the determinants and effects of black/mulatto occupational differences in the united states, 1880.

Rethinking brazil’s ‘racial democracy’ a discourse of the mixed race experience and inter-racial unions.

U.S. internal Migration and Occupational Attainment: Assessing Absolute and Relative Outcomes by Region and Race

Genetic Bio-Ancestry and Social Construction of Racial Classification in Social Surveys in the Contemporary United States

Race, Remarital Status, and Infertility in 1910: More Evidence of Multiple Causes

The racial crossover in family complexity in the United States

Disentangling the Effects of Racial Self-identification and Classification by Others: The Case of Arrest

Metropolitan Structure and Neighborhood Attainment: Exploring Intermetropolitan Variation in Racial Residential Segregation

A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era

Similar Documents

A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era

Racial boundary formation at the dawn of jim crow: the determinants and effects of black/mulatto occupational differences in the united states, 1880.

Rethinking brazil’s ‘racial democracy’ a discourse of the mixed race experience and inter-racial unions.

U.S. internal Migration and Occupational Attainment: Assessing Absolute and Relative Outcomes by Region and Race

Genetic Bio-Ancestry and Social Construction of Racial Classification in Social Surveys in the Contemporary United States

Race, Remarital Status, and Infertility in 1910: More Evidence of Multiple Causes

The racial crossover in family complexity in the United States

Disentangling the Effects of Racial Self-identification and Classification by Others: The Case of Arrest

Metropolitan Structure and Neighborhood Attainment: Exploring Intermetropolitan Variation in Racial Residential Segregation

A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era