Population: An Exodus Turns Around

In one of the most important demographic shifts in American history, hundreds of thousands of blacks fled the segregated South in search of jobs, freedom and dignity in the aftermath of World War II. Last week the Census Bureau confirmed that the black exodus has not only halted but been reversed. During the 1980s, the bureau found, the percentage of all African Americans who live in the South increased for the first time in the 20th century, from 52% to 56%.

The great return to Dixie is driven by motives much like those that lay behind the earlier migration from the region. It is fueled largely by better- educated men and women under 40 who believe they can make a better life in the South. Explains Larry Long of the Census Bureau: "That's a profile of people who migrate for job opportunities."