United States population trends in 1960 suggested that the growing socioeconomic status of blacks would result in increasingly similar migration patterns among blacks and whites. Analysis of 1950 to 1980 census data was conducted to test that prediction. The analysis showed that in general, recent population trends have differed greatly from past trends, and are characterized by a shift toward nonmetropolitan growth (versus earlier movements toward large cities) and a resurgence of Southern growth. Examination of movements between metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties showed that blacks are participating in the same redistribution trends that characterized the American population as a whole in the 1970-1980 decade. The greater black (versus white) growth rates in fringe counties, the resurgence of black growth in nonmetropolitan areas, and the decline in racial growth differentials between the South and non-South in the 1970s suggest that blacks are increasingly affected by social forces that determine white population redistribution. However, growth rates have not completely converged: the narrowing of the gap between percentages of blacks and whites is marked only in fringe counties of large metropolitan counties. Given the magnitude of change in the last decade, the uneven distribution of blacks and whites will probably remain despite recent evidence of convergence. (Author/MJL)