Residential Segregation and the Beginning of the Great Migration of African Americans to Hartford, Connecticut A GIS-Based Analysis

Abstract. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the African American population of the United States remained concentrated in the South. In 1910, African Americans in Connecticut accounted for less than 2 percent of the population. Hartford's African American population then totaled 1,745, but by 1920 had increased significantly (by 143 percent) to 4,567. The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to the North and Midwest was under way. The authors illustrate the use of GIS technology, combined with individual-level census records, to study the beginning stage of the Great Migration of African Americans to one northern city—Hartford, Connecticut. The first step involved building a historical GIS map for Hartford and attaching the 1920 address ranges to each street-segment in the city. Geocoding by street address of all African Americans then living in Hartford followed. The process of geocoding involves taking each address record and matching it against the street-segment file. When a match is made, the geographical location of the address (longitude and latitude) is appended to the record, and geocoded records are then displayed as points on a digital street map. The authors address several substantive research questions. Other data used here include African American registration and voting behavior in the 1920 presidential election.