city demographic and socioeconomic data. We analyzed the performance of each city in 13 selected criteria, including local black unemployment rate, black homeownership, black-owned businesses, average new home price, black high school and college graduation rates, and black household earnings. This information was critical because it revealed whether black residents’ perceptions of urban quality of life in their cities matched statistical evidence. Each city was ranked in those categories from 1 to 12, with combined numbers used to arrive at a total score. Cities were rated from best to worst performance to determine the final BE ranking: “Top Cities for African Americans.”
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Final Tally |
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|
TOP 10 |
B.E. |
SURVEY |
RANK |
TOTAL |
BLACKS |
BLACK (MSA) |
BLACKS |
| Atlanta, GA | 1 | 71.06 | 3 | 4,247,981.00 | 1,199,428.00 | 28.2 | 61.6 |
| Washington, DC | 2 | 67.12 | 2 | 4,796,183.00 | 1,307,056.00 | 27.3 | 60.5 |
| Dallas, TX | 3 | 63.85 | 8 | 5,161,544.00 | 536,426.00 | 10.4 | 26.1 |
| Nashville, TN | 4 | 63.57 | NR | 1,311,789.00 | 195,784.00 | 14.9 | 27.3 |
| Houston, TX | 5 | 70.12 | 1 | 4,715,407.00 | 732,817.00 | 15.5 | 25.4 |
| Charlotte, NC | 6 | 67.64 | 4 | 1,330,448.00 | 310,334.00 | 23.3 | 33.0 |
| Birmingham, AL | 7 | 66.18 | NR | 1,052,238.00 | 277,997.00 | 26.4 | 73.6 |
| Memphis, TN | 8 | 65.74 | 5 | 1,205,204.00 | 494,121.00 | 41.0 | 61.6 |
| Columbus, OH | 9 | 63.33 | NR | 1,612,694.00 | 217,715.00 | 13.5 | 25.8 |
| Baltimore, MD | 10 | 60.98 | 7 | 2,552,994.00 | 710,184.00 | 27.8 | 64.8 |
| B.E. Cities Average | 65.96 | 2,798,648.20 | 598,186.20 | 22.8 | 47.0 | ||
| National Average | 12.9 | 12.9 | |||||