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Michigan will be hit-or-miss. I grew up in rural southern Michigan between Grand Rapids and Lansing, and my community was about 97% white and 3% hispanic. The only african american kids that I knew were either adopted or from mixed couples. I honestly don't think there was a single black family in the entire community.
That being said, I think you could move there and have no problems. People will not be openly racist towards you, but they will probably be slow to warm also.
The other Michigan communities that were mentioned above are the exception, not the rule. Michigan is, for the most part, extremely segregated. Whites in the rural areas and suburbs, and blacks in the inner city. There are a few suburban communities that are more diverse, but these are few and far between.
My best evidence of this is that I have been a huge fan of high school sports for a long time, and I can get a good feel for the makeup of a community from the hundreds of sporting events I've been to. Most schools are either all black or all white. Not much in between.
The first time I visited the south, I was a little shocked by how much more integrated things were, as someone who grew up in Michigan. Considering that it was the home of slavery, the South seems much less segregated today, as far as where the african american population can be found.
Also, avoid Missouri. Many towns are white only, and very redneck. Anywhere in NW Missouri, north of St. Joseph, you'll be killed after dark. I mean it.
You are full of crap. Yes, there are racists in Missouri, just as there are in other states, but Missourians won't kill the OP. He might get his butt kicked if he comes to rural Missouri with a bad attitude, but if he moves to rural Missouri and works hard like the rest of us country bumpkins, he'll get along fine. It's non-workers we dislike; that and people who move in here from the city and start complaining.
Original poster, there are black people in Phelps county and Pulaski county in south central Missouri. You'll be OK in either county. Phelps County has a branch of the state university in Rolla, and Pulaski County has a huge Army post next to St. Robert-Waynesville.
I think anywhere near an university and you will get a diverse culture. We live in a college town and we have people from all over the world. It makes life more full and interesting I think. I think our town mixes and sees people just as people...woudn't have it any other way.
My hometown, pop. 7,000, in northern Illinois, has a large and growing Latino population. Many of the first Latino folks to come to the area came in the 1970's initially as migrant agricultural processing workers, as happened throughout much of the midwest at that time. Eventually, the migrant families settled out, bought property, and family came and joined them. Over time, the population grew. It was a big adjustment for the mostly non-Hispanic white population originally in the area, mostly Anglo-Germanic stock. And I would be lying if I didn't admit that there's a certain undercurrent of redneck intolerance. But to be honest, the people perpetrating that are just as likely to pick a fight with just about anybody, regardless of ethnicity. They just latch onto the person's ethnicity as a "reason," but it's not as if those people need a recent to be that way, they just ARE...they'd just find something else to "justify" their attacks. In any case, I wouldn't say it's a multicultural area, per se (two widely represented ethnicities does not a culturally diverse town make), but people of different ethnic backgrounds do live together as well as anybody. That said, when I was dating a black man, and he came to visit my hometown, he said he'd never choose to live there. I asked him why not, and he said that he just had no desire to live somewhere he'd be the only black person. While that's not entirely accurate, there is a small population of black people and people of Asian/Indian descent, it's true that the main makeup of the town is Latino and non-Hispanic white.
The other Michigan communities that were mentioned above are the exception, not the rule. Michigan is, for the most part, extremely segregated. Whites in the rural areas and suburbs, and blacks in the inner city. There are a few suburban communities that are more diverse, but these are few and far between.
I disagree with this statement. Many smaller Michigan communities have a large white majority, but are not necessarily segregated. Covert, Cass County, Lake County including Idlewild and Baldwin have a more racially balanced mix of folks. There do tend to be a lot of African-Americans in the inner-city areas of the larger cities in Michigan and Detroit is 98% African-American.
The south would appear more segregated because it has a larger percentage of African-Americans than most rural area of the mid-west. Truth is people of most races tend to stay in areas where there other members of the same race. The rural areas of Michigan with African-American communities typically were settled by former slaves. The rest of the rural areas of Michigan were settled by whites.
I grew up in Big Rapids, which is a college town. We had some blacks students in school and most were children of college professors or students. Some had moved to Big Rapids from the Baldwin area (not far) because of the job opportunities in Big Rapids were much greater than Lake County.
My experiences is that most northern mostly white communities, especially smaller ones, are very welcoming to African-Americans, even more so than Hispanics. I saw that a lot in Michigan and now in Nebraska it is about the same. The one thing to remember is an African-American in a lot of these settings will be the only one or only family in the area.
I think you would be treated fairly anywhere in the lower peninsula of Michigan or the rural areas of Nebraska. As far as the UP outside of Marquette, Houghton and the Sault which are college towns, anybody that is not a UP native regardless of skin color is treated as a foriegner.
There is a historic all black farm towm in Kansas called Nicodemus, it's in the middle of no where kansas, it has survived since 1878?, they still have some farming but the older black farmers have retired and not too many young people black or white want to farm, Nicodemus is also a National Park site, the Ukranian population took in the black refugees , untill they could get a foot hold on the town,
Oklahoma has many all black rural towns, you probally want a place where there is a certain amount of cooperation between black and white farmers,
Michigan is a beautiful state, I know cause I live here. It is not segregated like another poster said. I have spent considerable amounts of time in the Detroit area and suburbs, Ann Arbor, Battle creek, Mackinaw, Midland, Marquette (up) Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo and Muskegon. But my absolute favorite place is Idlewild. The history there is so thick in the air. The forest is amazing, hundreds of lakes and streams the water is clear with the best fishing. The people there are friendly and the ol folks are walking history books. Land is cheap and plentiful. I would say without a doubt West Michigan has everything you need. Good luck.
I agree with those that mentioned Michigan towns like Covert, Baldwin/Idlewild, Cassopolis, Vandalia, Dowagiac, Buchanan, among others in Western Michigan. There's also towns like Van Buren/Belleville, Sumpter, York, Pittsfield, Superior, Ypsilanti(town) and Augusta in Eastern Michigan near Detroit and Ann Arbor.
Anywhere in NW Missouri, north of St. Joseph, you'll be killed after dark. I mean it.
Bull.
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