US cities began naming streets in Black neighborhoods for Martin Luther King Jr. after his 1968 assassination. Researchers studying these areas 50 years later found entrenched deprivation.
Researchers investigated the racial makeup and economic well-being of 22,286 census blocks in the U.S. with roadways bearing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s name. Here's what they found.
Neighborhoods With MLK Streets Are Poorer Than National Average And Highly Segregated, Study Reveals
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Poverty rates are almost double the national average in areas surrounding streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., according to our recent study, and educational attainment is much lower.
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The United States has 955 streets named after Martin Luther King Jr..
The big idea
Poverty rates are almost double the national average in areas surrounding streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., according to our recent study, and educational attainment is much lower.
The big idea
Poverty rates are almost double the national average in areas surrounding streets named after Martin Luther King Jr., according to our recent study, and educational attainment is much lower.
Our geography research, published in the GeoJournal in September 2020, analyzed the racial makeup and economic well-being of 22,286 census blocks in the U.S. with roadways bearing the slain civil rights leader’s name. Streets named after Martin Luther King typically run through multiple census blocks; we identified a total of 955 such streets in the United States.
The areas surrounding MLK streets are predominantly African American, with very few white residents, we found. This is particularly true in the South and Midwest. A notable exception includes California, where MLK neighborhoods have seen a recent increase in their Latino population.