Black Meccas of America...

[UberEatsDriver]

Bronzeville rivaled Harlem and in some cases was more successful. I may be wrong, but I don’t think OP is American.

Explain further.

OP is very American lol.

 

[ISO]

Boston’s black history is low key very underrated

I mean MLK went to Boston University and Malcolm X formative years was in Roxbury, Boston...

How can Orlando be above it?

 

[UberEatsDriver]

LA still attracts black people so yes it should be on the list.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

There is nothing Mecca about Vegas to me at all whatsoever.

No offense.

 

[invalid]

Explain further.

OP is very American lol.

Harlem excelled at being a black cultural capital - in the arts, music, literature, etc. Bronzeville had a better cadre of black businesses and politicians. The first couple of black politicians elected to Congress came out of Bronzeville as did the wealthiest black business owners in the country.

 

[Neuromancer]

Maybe list why you placed all of these in this order.

 

[UberEatsDriver]

Boston’s black history is low key underrated

I mean MLK went to Boston University and Malcolm X formative years was in Roxbury, Boston...

How can Orlando be above it?

I agree with this. The only people that talk highly of Orlando are Caribbean blacks and NY Puerto Rican’s.

Not a Mecca in my opinion.

 

[ISO]

I agree with this. The only people that talk highly of Orlando are Caribbean blacks and NY Puerto Rican’s.

Not a Mecca in my opinion.

Orlando fukking sucks

 

[Noriega]

The fact that no one has mentioned St Louis is mad disrespectful

Straight up chocolate city

 

[UberEatsDriver]

The fact that no one has mentioned St Louis is mad disrespectful

Straight up chocolate city

Jackson, Mississippi is the second blackest city in America after Detroit and I have never met a black person that has said anything positive about that place.

Same can go for St. Louis but I do think ST. Louis is actually less than 50% black.

Can’t take a city seriously when the black locals are you telling to never travel there from outside looking in.

 

[murksiderock]

Too many people to respond, and this will probably be a long post, but I'll go into my thought processes here...

So from starting point, I said, where are the magnets attracting black people today, and why? Here they are:

Texas (mainly Dallas and Houston), Las Vegas, Florida (mainly Orlando and Miami), Carolina (mainly Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham), Atlanta, and the DMV (mainly DC)...

This is what I've seen, running coast to coast the last 10 years, this is where the overwhelming majority of us are going to, if we're leaving our home...

The "why" part of it is a combination of low cost of living, strong economies, great weather, and stronger black resources and strength than the places people are leaving. Most of these places aren't historic black meccas, but because they are the main places attracting blacks right now, they deserve to be on the list, for potential future impact. The majority of these places aren't gonna be 1st tier; i didn't put these places in order...

Next question I asked, where are the places that have drawn black people in the last 150 years---->basically since the abolishment of slavery in 1865, when we began to have free movement of where we wanted to go? This list is gonna be longer because my "today" list is for the last 10 years, but my "legacy" list is spanning 155 years and many different eras. None of these places are in order, and you would be making a difficult exercise to refute any of the following places as legacy black cities in the last 155 years; i can easily make an argument for ALL of them:

Seattle, The Bay, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Memphis, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Pittsburgh, St Louis, Kansas City...

The final question was where are more regional centers of black gravitas today, that aren't leading the pack, but are burgeoning:

Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Twin Cities, Phoenix...

This is 28 places I've named, and realistically, there aren't 28 iconically black places here, but they are 28 cities of varying importance, so then I separated them into tiers. Their historical importance and cultural contributions holds a ton of sway here. Some corrections I'm willing to make:

•Chicago deserves to be first tier, that was a mistake. What I wrestled with was when both were at their height, was Chicago even more relevant than Detroit to Black America? I couldn't settle on an answer, but Chicago has remained relevant for longer, so it deserves to be above Detroit...

•Philly has always been a secondary black city, I don't think in any era it was 1st tier, but it's never really been lower than 2nd tier, either (except possibly today). That to me is significant...

People questioning LA's inclusion as Top tier are ridiculous...

Also, I think alot of cats here simply don't realize Vegas is the second largest magnet out west. It is the blackest western metro, it just doesn't have the legacy, but if you are in any of the bordering states, you'll here about blacks relocating to LV all the time, and the cultural attractions for blacks. A few years ago I knew a guy from VA who was married to a girl from Philly, who moved to Vegas. Last week i just met a 55-year old woman at a rest stop in NC, who lives in Maryland and works for the government, who told me she's heading to Vegas when she retires in three years...

So while the pull isn't as strong out this way because of simple location, there are blacks out this way who know about Vegas. And think about where the people I named are from: Philly, Virginia, Maryland, these are places with long black legacies on the East Coast. They going to Vegas for different reasons, but there are people who know about LV's growing blackness...everybody out West know about it...

Someone said only Caribbean blacks are going to Orlando, which isn't true. I know a girl from Sacramento who relocated there and is loving it, she told me I should go there. Also know a girl from my days in Upstate NY at the beginning of the decade, who relocated there with her two sI think 2-3 years ago, and she loves it...

 

[murksiderock]

Jackson, Mississippi is the second blackest city in America after Detroit and I have never met a black person that has said anything positive about that place.

Same can go for St. Louis but I do think ST. Louis is actually less than 50% black.

Can’t take a city seriously when the black locals are you telling to never travel there from outside looking in.

Yeah being a "chocolate city" is less about having a high percentage of blacks, and more about lifestyle and opportunities for success for blacks...

Jackson isn't even the biggest black draw in it's own state, black Mississippians look towards Memphis or New Orleans first, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Biloxi/Gulfport) and Alabama are also competitive. Jackson is far from a major draw...

St. Louis had an era where it was drawing blacks, but was never a top tier city, and is far from it today. The amount of black poverty and crime in STL is astounding, the income gap between blacks and whites there is crazy. St. Louis is more known for all of the wrong things in our community than anything else, I could have kept it off of my thought board entirely, but I am showing respect to it being important during the Great Migration...

 

[UberEatsDriver]

@murksiderock ill agree with you on Vegas about black folks relocating there. All my black uber drivers when I traveled there were from other places - mainly California.

 

[aYoYo1]

Midwest cities Chicago Detroit Milwaukee Cleveland St Louis always had a heavy concentration of ADOS blacks. Almost like a mecca compared to cities outside the south,along with D.C B-more Philly parts of NYC so fourth.

 

[murksiderock]

@*DalMem* @HaitianPatty

I made this thread three years ago, and am more than happy to continue it...

DalMem you have yet to say who/where is the black mecca(s), so let's hear it...