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Social scientists’ use of linked decennial census data has grown extensively over the past two decades. For U.S. census data before 1950, a large body of linked data has been made available within the past few years. The 2000 and 2010 decennial data have been linked to one another and back to the 1940 Census. For the censuses in between these years—from 1950 to 1990—no linked data are available yet. This paper focuses on the technological advances in data capture that have enabled this centuries-long longitudinal data infrastructure to flourish while still leaving a sizeable “missing link” from 1950 to 1990. We will describe the development of modern technology to capture handwritten data at the Census Bureau, and ongoing efforts to digitize remaining information from and create linkages between the censuses of 1950 to 1990.

Between 1915 and 1970, millions of black and white southerners migrated north in search of better lives for themselves and their children. Using novel, longitudinally linked 1940 and 2000 census data, we investigate whether this mass migration corresponded to improved neighborhood attainment outcomes for the black and white children of Great Migration migrants in their adulthood. We find that black and white second-generation migrants tend to live in more socioeconomically advantaged and whiter neighborhoods than southern stayers, although these advantages are partially explained by the characteristics of second-generation migrants and their parents. Moreover, black second-generation migrants in the North are more successful at converting higher socioeconomic status into improved neighborhood outcomes relative to those who stayed in the South. Our findings provide powerful evidence that leaving the South resulted in residential advantages for the children of Great Migration participants.

The evolution of the high school has emerged as a key issue in the history of American education. Between about 1890 and 1940, the American high school was transformed from an academically oriented privilege for the few to a near-requirement for the many. As student ranks swelled and high school became an increasingly common experience, the meaning and impact of the schools themselves underwent fundamental changes.