The relationship between the recent population growth in nonmetropolitan areas and race is analyzed in this paper. Despite several years of research on numerous aspects of the population turnaround, little is known about the role of aversion to particular racial groups in the shift, the degree to which many of the quality-of-life decisions given for moving contain racial overtones, or the involvement of blacks in the new migration. Examination of the racial composition of population growth in 75 Midwestern counties that have experienced substantial urban-to-rural migration shows that the immigrant stream is predominantly white. Analysis of the reasons for moving given by a sample of these urban-to-rural migrants clearly points to the importance of non-economic motivations that can be interpreted as having racial overtones. Such issues as "busing,""urban crime," and "undesirable conditions in the city" may well be code words masking direct expressions of racial views. The paper ends by suggesting some means of exploring the hypothesis that racially-motivated aversion is implicated in the new migration to rural areas. (CMG)