Southern Black Dallas Suburbs
The cities that make up the Southern Suburbs are the top relocation destinations for Black families in the DFW area. Middle-class blacks began flocking to this area in the 80’s in search of a quiet lifestyle and good schools. Although the northern Suburbs boomed in the 90’s, more African Americans were drawn to the southern burbs, which offered more affordable new homes.
The black population in these cities grew about 200% between 1990 and 2000. This includes the cities of DeSoto, Lancaster, Cedar Hill and Duncanville, as well as the southern sections of Arlington and Grand Prairie. This can also be describe as the area “south of I-20”.
For African Americans who want to live in a suburban community surrounded by other “well-to-do” and “upwardly mobile” people who look just like them, this is the place to do it. With recent large light industrial and retail projects, this area will soon be a contender for the “Black Mecca” title like the suburbs of Atlanta and Washington DC.
The biggest drawback to living here is the distance to most of the job centers in DFW. A known fact is that you compromise short commute times for the benefits these suburbs provide. The majority of office space is north of Downtown Dallas. Job commutes from south of the I-20 corridor easily run from 30 minutes to an hour and in some cases more. To many the sacrifice is worth it.
One of the other sacrifices in Black suburban communities all over the nation has always been the lack of services, shopping, and dining options. This has changed for the better over the last decade. New mid and upscale shopping and dining centers have been the fruits of large scale developments especially in Cedar Hill, South Arlington and Southern Grand Prairie. This means African Americans now can drive shorter distances to enjoy the fruits of their labor closer or even in their own communities.