Nevada trails nation in black population

Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

Nevada had slightly higher percentages of whites and blacks than the West as a whole but remained well below the national average for blacks, according to census data released Monday.

The U.S. Census Bureau analysis, which was based on previously reported data, shows that people who identified themselves as white alone or in combination with another race made up 77.1 percent of the country and 74 percent of the West. That compared to 78.4 percent in Nevada and 75 percent in Clark County.

Blacks alone or in combination with another race made up 12.9 percent of the nation, but only 6 percent of the West, 7.5 percent of Nevada and 10 percent of Clark County. Lumped into the western region with Nevada were Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

The Rev. Marion Bennett of Zion Methodist Church in North Las Vegas said he expects more blacks to come to Nevada for jobs. But Bennett, who came to Southern Nevada from South Carolina in 1960, said many blacks have chosen to remain in the South to be near their families.

"They want to be right where their mom and dad live," Bennett said. "But we're more mobile than in the past."

Blacks began migrating to Nevada in significant numbers in the 1940s. But state demographer Jeff Hardcastle speculated that Nevada's black population continues to lag behind the national average, partly because many blacks who worked in the state retired elsewhere.

"Part of it also is the relative late start of the development of the state," Hardcastle said.