There is nothing subtle about the the county's reputation for racism and segregation. Cowlitz County earns the dubious distinction of having recorded the highest percentage of restricted properties among all the counties of Washington. With more than 8,000 identified so far, it ranks second in number to King County. Many of the restrictions were imposed by the owners of the Long-Bell lumber company which planned and developed the city of Longview starting in 1923 with restrictive covenants banning "any person who is not of the white race." It is only in recent decades that the county has begun to diversify.
Move through the decades from 1980-2020. Select a race category, either by number of residents or percentage. Click a census tract for detailed information about a neighborhood. These maps are hosted by Tableau Public and may take a few seconds to respond. If slow, refresh the page.
Notes: Data are from the National Historic Geographic Information System (IPUMS). The most recent data is labeled 2020* but to improve accuracy we use an average of five Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) samples from 2018-2022.
Credits: These maps and tables were created by Anna Yoon, Brian Lam, Gihoon Du, Jiang Wu, and Yurika Harada using data and shape files from the National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS). The work was a class project for Geography 469 GIS Workshop taught by Professor Sarah Elwood-Faustino Spring 2017. James Gregory added the 2020 maps.
Source: calculated from Steven Manson, Jonathan Schroeder, David Van Riper, and Steven Ruggles. IPUMS National Historical Geographic Information System: Version 12.0 [Database]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. 2017. http://doi.org/10.18128/D050.V12.0
See these maps of race and segregation for other Washington counties.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |