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Did you mention Chemung County/Elmira yet? According to the census stats, 7% of Chemung County is African American, while 15% of Elmira is. This means that of the approximately 6000 African Americans in the county, approximately 4300 of them live in the city of Elmira. In Horseheads, a "suburb" of Elmira that tends to boast about better schools and a higher average income per capita, only about 2% of the population is African American. That means that there are fewer than 200 African Americans in the village - in fact, there are more people who identify as Asian (not a lot more, but still more).
There is a pervasive attitude that the African American population in the city of Elmira exists, in no small part, due to the prison - "The Hill" houses about 1800 inmates, although I don't know the racial breakdown of that population. :/
In my child's grade (not just the classroom) in one of the Horseheads elementary schools, there is one African American child.
Did you mention Chemung County/Elmira yet? According to the census stats, 7% of Chemung County is African American, while 15% of Elmira is. This means that of the approximately 6000 African Americans in the county, approximately 4300 of them live in the city of Elmira. In Horseheads, a "suburb" of Elmira that tends to boast about better schools and a higher average income per capita, only about 2% of the population is African American. That means that there are fewer than 200 African Americans in the village - in fact, there are more people who identify as Asian (not a lot more, but still more).
There is a pervasive attitude that the African American population in the city of Elmira exists, in no small part, due to the prison - "The Hill" houses about 1800 inmates, although I don't know the racial breakdown of that population. :/
In my child's grade (not just the classroom) in one of the Horseheads elementary schools, there is one African American child.
Yes and I posted info of the Chemung County Sherriff and an Elmira city council member. Elmira has long had a Black population/community and I notice that it seems to be interracial friendly. So, if you include those that are part Black, that percentage is probably in line with this information, which goes by how people are viewed socially: US2010 Historically, it seems like it has been concentrated on the East and NE sides of the city.
Horseheads schools cover more than the village and the school district enrollment is about 2-3% Black, depending on who you include. Like I mentioned with the sports aspect, you will have some Black athletes on certain teams there, more years than not. Elmira Heights has little more in this regard.
Corning has some, with a relative concentration in the Eastern part of the city and into the Tuxill Ave area of South Corning.
I guess living here, I don't see many black people. As I said, my child's entire grade will have one black student in it. Elmira College is about as white as you can get, and even Corning Community College recruits African American students from outside the area in an attempt to be "diverse."
Of course there is Sheriff Moss, and Nykole Parks on the City Council...but finding a hair on a bald man's head does not a full head of hair make!
Some will probably say that is because my own preferences, which I can't deny - but we chose our home based on what we could afford, where we felt safe (by consulting our realtor and crime stats), and the home we liked. And there are no black families in at least a five-block radius that I've seen...
I guess living here, I don't see many black people. As I said, my child's entire grade will have one black student in it. Elmira College is about as white as you can get, and even Corning Community College recruits African American students from outside the area in an attempt to be "diverse."
Of course there is Sheriff Moss, and Nykole Parks on the City Council...but finding a hair on a bald man's head does not a full head of hair make!
Some will probably say that is because my own preferences, which I can't deny - but we chose our home based on what we could afford, where we felt safe (by consulting our realtor and crime stats), and the home we liked. And there are no black families in at least a five-block radius that I've seen...
I wish that the local areas of the Capital Region would do more to celebrate and display black history/black culture in the area. There are a lot of black people in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy. And it's sad that the majority of the black areas are undesirable neighborhoods due to the high crime. Perhaps being proud of being black, just like Italians, Irish, Hispanics celebrate their culture, would lead to lower crime and better social mobility for black people in the Capital Region.
I think that because the black population of the rural areas of Upstate NY is so low, it makes the black populations of the smaller cities there more noticeable than it might be if the same general percentages were spread more evenly among urban, suburban, and rural areas.
There are so few blacks in rural NY because most blacks migrated to Upstate NY primarily during/since WW II to work in the factories that used to provide prosperity for most upstate cities and villages. They escaped the southern cotton, rice, and tobacco fields of the rural South, and they weren't going back to living that kind of existence again any more than white farmers' kids who flocked to "town jobs" or "the city" weren't going back to milking cows and shoveling manure.
The two exceptions that I can think of are the fruit growing/truck farming areas along Lakes Erie and Ontario and Selkirk, NY. The truck farming area has a long history of using immigrant/migrant labor in their fields. In the early 1900s, Italian immigrants did the field work (that's how my dad's family ended up in North Collins, NY). Later, they were replaced by some southern blacks but mostly by Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans, and have since been replaced by Latinos from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Central America. Most of the descendents of these rural blacks eventually made their ways to Buffalo, Rochester or Syracuse.
Selkirk, which is just south of Albany, had one of the country's largest rail yards (it might still), and the railroads were one of the few employers who hired blacks early on in the 20th century. Consequently, numerous black families who worked for the railroad (New York Central, I guess, then) settled in and around Selkirk, although most of their children and grandchildren eventually moved up to Albany or down to NYC for better opportunities. When I lived in Ravena, NY, back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, there were still some elderly blacks and a handful of black families in the Selkird hamlet.
I think that because the black population of the rural areas of Upstate NY is so low, it makes the black populations of the smaller cities there more noticeable than it might be if the same general percentages were spread more evenly among urban, suburban, and rural areas.
There are so few blacks in rural NY because most blacks migrated to Upstate NY primarily during/since WW II to work in the factories that used to provide prosperity for most upstate cities and villages. They escaped the southern cotton, rice, and tobacco fields of the rural South, and they weren't going back to living that kind of existence again any more than white farmers' kids who flocked to "town jobs" or "the city" weren't going back to milking cows and shoveling manure.
The two exceptions that I can think of are the fruit growing/truck farming areas along Lakes Erie and Ontario and Selkirk, NY. The truck farming area has a long history of using immigrant/migrant labor in their fields. In the early 1900s, Italian immigrants did the field work (that's how my dad's family ended up in North Collins, NY). Later, they were replaced by some southern blacks but mostly by Puerto Ricans and Jamaicans, and have since been replaced by Latinos from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Central America.
Selkirk, which is just south of Albany, had one of the country's largest rail yards (it might still), and the railroads were one of the few employers who hired blacks early on in the 20th century. Consequently, numerous black families who worked for the railroad (New York Central, I guess, then) settled in and around Selkirk, although most of their children and grandchildren eventually moved up to Albany or down to NYC for better opportunities. When I lived in Ravena, NY, back in the late 1980s/early 1990s, there were still some elderly black families in the Selkird hamlet.
Yes, Selkirk does have a unique history in that regard. Like you mentioned, the small towns near the Great Lakes have notable Black populations that go back decades or even well over a century. You also have towns with an Underground Railroad history or had industries that attracted some Black families. For instance, towns/small cities like Owego, Norwich, Canandaigua, Bath, Little Falls, Amsterdam and Peterboro had churches that worshipped in the African American tradition and the village of Cooperstown at one time in the late 19th century was almost 10% Black due to the tourism industry they worked in.
For those interested, look in your area for an African Methodist Episcopal or African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, as that church will likely offer historical insight into the history of the Black community there.
Another thing that could offer insight historically is to search through old yearbooks on classmates.com You may be surprised by some communities. LeRoy and Caledonia-Mumford were a couple for me and going back to the early 20th century.
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