Graduation Year

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.L.A.

Degree Name

Master of Liberal Arts (M.L.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Humanities and Cultural Studies

Major Professor

Cheryl Rodriguez, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Laurie Lahey, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Johnhenry Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Keywords

Hispanic Migration, U.S. Immigration Policy, Community Residential shifts

Abstract

Progress Village in Tampa Florida was developed in the late 1950s in response to the dislocation of black families during the construction of Interstate-4. Furthermore this community became an opportunity for many black and more specifically, African American families, to live in a community devoid of racist attitudes and tensions rampant in inner city Tampa at the time. For over thirty years this community’s residential population was overwhelmingly (90 percent) black or African American. In the 1990s though this community would begin to experience the first wave of Latino residents and by 2000 this group would comprise over 2 percent of the population. Moreover by 2010 this community’s Latino population would soar to over 14 percent of the total population. This project is a case study of Latino migration into a small historically Black residential community. This work examines a plethora of sources ranging from newspaper articles (New York Times, Sun Sentinel, Progress Village Pioneer, etc.), scholarly articles, government data (U.S. Census), and primary research in the form of survey data and interviews from current Latino residents. All these sources are incorporated to argue that evolving federal immigration policies, shifting migration patterns, and economic factors (affordable housing and employment) all played a vital role in this recent and ongoing influx. This research adds to the existing scholarship of Latino migration in the U.S. by demonstrating how small predominantly African American communities like Progress Village are diversified by all these factors.

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