| Abstract: |
Large black-white fertility differences are a key feature of US demography,
and are closely related to the broader dynamics of US racial inequality. To
better understand the origins and determinants of racial fertility
differentials, this paper examines fertility patterns in the period
surrounding passage and implementation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which
precipitated a period of rapid socioeconomic and political progress among
African Americans, with these gains strongly concentrated in the South. I
first show that the relative fertility of southern black women precipitously
declined immediately after 1964. Specifically, as of 1964 the general
fertility rate of southern black women was 53 births greater than the general
fertility rate of southern white women, but by 1969 this gap had fallen to 33
births, a decline of approximately 40% in five years. The black-white
fertility gap outside of the South was unchanged over this period. Measures of
completed childbearing similarly show rapid black-white fertility convergence
in the South but not in the North. An analysis of potential mechanisms finds
that a substantial share of the observed fertility convergence can be
explained by relative improvements in the earnings of southern blacks, and
that the historical intensity of slavery and lynching activity are the
strongest spacial correlates of fertility convergence |