Research Summary:Stewart Tolnay is Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Tolnay's research has focused primarily on the demographic characteristics and behavior of African Americans, generally from an historical perspective. During the past 36 months he has focused on two broad issues that are central to the social demography of African Americans. The first project concerns the Great Migration that resulted in a massive redistribution of the African American population between 1910 and 1970. Although this research program has examined a wide variety of issues related to the Great Migration, perhaps the overriding theme to emerge is a significant re-evaluation of the conventional wisdom that black southern migrants destabilized northern cities by carrying with them a dysfunctional family culture (e.g., Tolnay 1997, 1998a, 1999; 2001a; Tolnay and Crowder 1999; Tolnay, Crowder and Adelman 2000). Marriages of southern migrants living in the North were at least as durable as the marriages of native northerners and, in most decades, the children of migrants had a greater chance of living with two parents than did the children of northern-born blacks. A second theme can be gleaned from this project's examination of the residential settlement patterns of southern migrants in northern cities. That is, the effect of regional origin on the locational attainment of northern blacks was minuscule in when compared with the much stronger impact of race (e.g., Adelman et al. 2002; Tolnay et al. 2001a).
Tolnay's second, and more recent project examines the relative social and economic statuses of African Americans and immigrants in northern cities over a 100 year period of U.S. history (Tolnay 2001b; Tolnay and Adelman 2001). For example, one working paper from this project shows that African American males and females were occupationally disadvantaged in 1920 and 1970, compared with foreign-born groups (Tolnay and Adelman 2001). The results from this paper document the obstacles faced by blacks in northern cities at the beginning and end of the Great Migration, and when contrasted with immigration populations of vastly different national origins. In addition, this project also considers the extent to which the size and growth of immigrant populations have had deleterious impacts on the well-being of African Americans (Tolnay 2001c). One paper on this topic uses newly available PUMS data for 1920 to estimate the effects of relative group size within northern labor markets on the occupational standing of African Americans and European immigrants in urban areas. The results show that the occupational status of African American men was relatively insensitive to the concentration of immigrants, or other African Americans, in their labor markets. In contrast, the occupational fortunes of immigrant men are enhanced by a larger population of African Americans. At the same time, a larger immigrant population reduces the occupational standing of immigrant males, consistent with a queuing model. However, at the higher levels of immigrant concentration a positive association emerges, suggesting the existence of an enclave economy for immigrants. This project will continue to dominate Tolnay's research agenda for the next two to three years.
Recent Publications:- Eichenlaub, S. C.; Tolnay, S. E.; Alexander, J. T., (Forthcoming), Moving Out But Not Up: Economic Outcomes in the Great Migration, American Sociological Review.
- Bailey, A. K.; Tolnay, S. E.; Beck, E. M.; Roberts, A. R.; Wong, N. H., (2008), Personalizing Lynch Victims: A New Database to Support the Study of Mob Violence, Historical Methods, 41: 1, 47.
- Tolnay, S.; Eichenlaub, S. C., (2008), Inequality in the West: Racial and Ethnic Variation in Occupational Status and Returns to Education, 1940-2000, Social Science History, 31: 4, 471-507.
- Tolnay, S. E., (2008), Nevels, Lynching to Belong: Claiming Whiteness through Racial Violence, JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY -BLOOMINGTON-, 95: 2, 552.
- Tolnay, S. E., (2007), Sundown Towns: Hidden Dimension of American Racism by James W. Loewen; Rough Justice: Lynching and American Society, 1874-1947 by Michael J. Pfeifer, JOURNAL OF THE GILDED AGE AND PROGRESSIVE ERA, 6: 3, 339-343.
- Adelman, R.; Tsao, H.-s.; Tolnay, S., (2006), Occupational Disparity in a Migrant Metropolis: A Case Study of Atlanta, Sociological Spectrum, 26: 3, 269-287.
- Tolnay, S. E., (2006), William D. Carrigan The Making of a Lynching Culture. Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916, INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL HISTORY, 51, 133-135.
- Tolnay, S. E.; Bailey, A. K., (2006), Schooling for Newcomers: Variation in Educational Persistence in the Northern United States in 1920, Sociology of Education, 79: 3, 253.
- Curtis White, K. J.; Crowder, K.; Tolnay, S. E.; Adelman, R. M., (2005), Race, Gender, and Marriage: Destination Selection during the Great Migration, Demography, 42: 2, 215-241.
- Hirschman, C.; Tolnay, S. E., (2005), Social Demography, Handbook of Population, Dudley, L.; Poston, D. L.; Micklin, M., 419-449, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
- Tolnay, S. E.; White, K. C.; Crowder, K., (2005), Distances Traveled During the 'Great Migration': An Analysis of Racial Differences Among Male Migrants, Social Science History, 29, 523-548.
- White, K. J. C.; Crowder, K.; Tolnay, S. E.; Adelman, R. M., (2005), Race, Gender, and Marriage: Destination Selection during the Great Migration., Demography, 42: 2, 215-241.
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Ph.D. 1981, University of Washington. Family demography, migration and mobility, historical demography, race/ethnicity.
