(Third in the three-part series)
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Brian Alnutt says he enjoys the Lehigh Valley’s diverse mix of people from all backgrounds.
The 65-year-old history professor describes himself as multiracial, identifying as white, Black and Native American. He rates race relations in the region as positive.
“I’ve lived in areas before like the Philadelphia area where there was a lot of polarization and sometimes hard feelings — really separate lives between different racial groups and I’ve never felt that so much here,” said Alnutt, who teaches at Northampton Community College and lives in New Tripoli.
Most respondents to a Lehigh Valley Quality of Life survey, conducted by the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion, agree with Alnutt.
The survey found that overall, 72% of respondents rated race relations as "excellent" (6%) or "good" (66%). Twenty-one percent rated race relations as "not so good," 6% classified them as "poor" and 1% said they weren't sure.
The Lehigh Valley was predominantly white in 1970. But today Hispanic residents make up 21% of the population across Lehigh and Northampton counties. That number jumps to 54.5% in Allentown and 30% in Bethlehem.
Little by little, a change
Olga Negrón is president of Hispanic Center Lehigh Valley’s executive board and a former Bethlehem City Council member. The Latino population here has felt invisible for a long time, Negrón said.
“Why are you going to be part of it if you’re going to be ignored anyway,” she said. “You’re not going to be recognized.”
But Negrón said that feeling has begun to change in recent years, especially in Allentown and Bethlehem.
She pointed to Musikfest 2022 as an example. There were many Latino performers, she said, and the poster for the festival designed by artist and Lehigh Valley native Bart Cooper depicted a Black man with his daughter holding an American flag in front of the blast furnaces at SteelStacks.
“Generally speaking, in the past year, there has been an effort from government and some companies to pay attention to people saying ‘I feel invisible,’” said Negrón, community liaison for the Allentown law firm of Haggerty, Goldberg, Schleifer & Kupersmith.
The Institute of Public Opinion survey was commissioned by LehighValleyNews.com, along with the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. and Lehigh Valley Partnership. The survey polled 631 adults in Lehigh and Northampton counties in September and October of last year. It has a 5% margin of error.
Institute Director Chris Borick, a public opinion researcher who oversaw the survey, said differences of opinion on race relations showed most clearly when examining responses by age groups.
“With really the older you get, the more negative you are about race relations,” he said. “And I think that’s fascinating that race itself isn’t the driver.”
Inside the numbers
Borick said a person’s race didn’t necessarily correspond with how they saw race relations – positive or negative.
In fact, the survey found that the proportion of people of color who rated race relations as "excellent" or "good" (75%) was higher than white respondents (70%).
Borick said there’s a lot of research that suggests younger people are more comfortable with people from all backgrounds. He also said a reason someone older might view race relations more negatively could be that they grew up in an area lacking in diversity.
The survey found participants ages 18 to 24 had the most positive view of race relations — 90% rated them as excellent or good. That fell to 75% in the 25 to 44 age group and 65% for those ages 45 to 64. Seventy-one percent of respondents ages 65 to 74 had favorable views of race relations compared to 65% for those 75 and older. It was that oldest cohort that had the most negative ratings — 28% answered that race relations were "not too good" and 7% described relations as "poor."
In 2022, Wandalyn Enix became the first Black person in city history to take a seat on Bethlehem City Council. She was appointed to fill the vacancy created by William Reynolds, who left the council upon his election as mayor.
The 75-year-old Enix can trace her family’s history in Bethlehem to her grandfather’s arrival in 1920. Ernest Enix, who was born to slaves in South Carolina, took a job in construction because Bethlehem Steel was not hiring Black workers at that time. Her father, who was also named Ernest but nicknamed “Bubbles,” eventually worked for more than 40 years for the steel plant.
'We still have work to do'
Enix says the Black population has grown from when her family first put roots down in Bethlehem, although it's still small. Census data from 2021 shows that 9.3% of the Bethlehem population and 14% of Allentown is Black.
After watching generations of her family and other African Americans struggle for equality, she said she thinks race relations still could be better.
“It’s to my advantage that Dad was so well known among his people and the steelworkers,” she said. “I’ve heard some awful stories actually from people who have come here from New Jersey. And some move on to other places. So people do have a varied number of experiences here.”
Tony Iannelli, president of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said the Lehigh Valley is far ahead in its business environment from where he thought it would be as a child growing up in Allentown.
But he says there’s still efforts needed to make it completely equitable for all residents.
“We still have work to do,” he said. “I suspect now more than ever people in the Lehigh Valley want to do that work. And everyone feels that they’ve got a piece of this incredible future that we’ve developed, this economic pie.”
View the full Life in the Lehigh Valley presentation here.
