Giving Compass' Take:

• Council on Foundations examines the data for economic mobility in America and finds that the South is lagging behind; factors go beyond geography to racial identity.

• What can be done to improve prospects for minorities in the southern region of the United States? Several case studies are listed as showing success in improving health outcomes and education for low-income families (such as the Spartanburg County Foundation collective impact model in South Carolina), but full-on systems change is needed.

• Progress is being made. Read about efforts to repair Jackson, Mississippi's history of racist housing policy.

While economic disparities in the U.S. are widespread, nowhere in the country is the gap in economic mobility more pronounced than the South. Just look at the map below and you’ll notice the broad swath of red indicating the lack of upward mobility in the region.

Poverty in the South

From a list of 741 commuting zones, four Southern cities were ranked in the bottom ten in terms of upward mobility. These were Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, and Raleigh, all of which have shown indicators of strong economic growth. The chances of a child going from the bottom quintile to the top in these cities were some of the lowest in the country — nowhere higher than 5 percent. By contrast, the leading cities in upward mobility—New York, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, to name a few — all measured 10 percent or higher.

But is it just geographic differences that are to blame for the lack of economic mobility in the South? In addition to location, Chetty and his fellow researchers found that another primary factor in upward mobility was an individual’s racial identity. The latest research from the Equality of Opportunity Project finds that in 99 percent of Census tracts in the United States, black boys earn less in adulthood than white boys who grew up in families with comparable income. This suggests that differences in resources at the neighborhood level, such as access to quality schools, cannot by themselves explain the intergenerational gaps between black and white children.

Read the full article about bringing widespread prosperity to the South by Danny Turkel at Council on Foundations.