What do Iowa, Montana, and West Virginia have in common? White people, and lots of them. According to Census data, these states are among the top 10 "whitest,"
ABC News reports. New England comes in first with three states in which at least 96% of the population is white. A black man living in Vermont likens a non-white moving to the state to Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier. "They are evaluated differently," he says. Northern New England, one theory goes, lacked the industries that drew African Americans from the South to other northern states in the '30s and '40s.
http://www.newser.com/story/223330/10-us-states-are-more-than-90-white.html
The factors that determine this may be due more to circumstance than demographics. Firstly, it is COLD in most of the states that are the "whitest," and the standard of living is extremely high compared to the South, or West. So, there is really no incentive to move to these states. Also, these states - especially the NW states - were Manifest Destiny and Gold Rush states - a campaign almost independent of the paradigm of America at the time (in terms of economics and personnel movement.) Very few African-Americans could
safely move to these places without facing death or at best - return to slave-owner. Keep in mind slaves who were freed even after the Emancipation Proclaimation were swindled back into slavery through faulty and egregious tax and "loan" debts.
Moreover, the North in general was not that "slavery friendly," or "African-American" friendly. This is true now; I would say where the South has no problem calling an African American a n*gg*r, the Northern mentality is repressed in the prejudice
they may have, and it is projected in passive aggressive activities and mentalities. The word definitely got around that even in the 20th century, the North was only marginally more accepting of African Americans than the South.
In terms of jobs and economic opportunities in these states, again there was no incentive.
And, remember that even though these "whitest" states are in the North for the most part, it doesn't mean their geographic location was the same as their geographical mentality.
Like many have said, this is not news. To be flippant, anywhere an "African American" prospers in a majority white industry is a ground-breaking thing. From Basketball in the 70s, to tennis, to golf, to football - it isn't a racial issue so much as it is a xenophobia issue (at first - and especially if we ignore American history in favor of innocent shock.)
