Her Latest Work - "Fighting For Foothold"
Book forthcoming February 2026
How Government and Markets Undermine Black Middle-Class Suburbia
Fighting for a Foothold argues that Black middle-class counties subsidize White middle-class counties’ tax revenue generation due to the unique constraints Black jurisdictions face—the cumulative effects of anti-Black racism, raced and classed flows of people and capital into local jurisdictions, and shared authority across levels of government that fails to account for Black jurisdictions’ historical and ongoing disadvantages.
My Work
Academic Publications
Simms, Angela. 2024. “How the Housing Act of 1949 Widened the Black-White Wealth Gap,” Journal of the American Planning Association 90(4):783.
Simms, Angela. 2023. “Fiscal Fragility in Black Middle-class Suburbia and Consequences for K-12 Schools and Other Public Services.” The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9(1):204-225.
Simms, Angela. 2021. “COVID-19, Black Jurisdictions, and Budget Constraints: How Fiscal Footing Shapes Fighting the Virus.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 44(5):836-850.
Simms, Angela. 2019. “The ‘Veil’ of Racial Segregation in the 21st Century: The Suburban Black Middle Class, Public Schools, and Pursuit of Racial Equity.” Phylon 56(1):81-110.
Simms, Angela and Elizabeth Talbert. 2019. “Racial Residential Segregation and School Choice: How a Market-Based Policy for K-12 School Access Creates a ‘Parenting Tax’ for Black Parents.” Phylon 56(1):33-57.
Media Appearances
2026
Academic expert for documentary “Displaced from the Birthplace of America,” The Village Initiative and William and Mary (forthcoming)
2025
Academic expert for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally, sponsored by Pray March Act, New York City
2021
Quoted in “Black Women and the Wealth Gap: Best Cities to Flourish Financially,” by Erin P. Perkins, Money Geek, May 27
Quoted in “Relocations at Prince George’s Schools Enflames Long-Standing Racial Inequities,” by Dominique Maria Bonessi, National Public Radio (WAMU), April 30
2020
Quoted in “Thanks to Trump, U.S. No Longer in Denial about Racism,” by Otis R. Taylor Jr., San Francisco Chronicle, November 20
Quoted in “Blackfishing, Influencers and Cancel Culture: A Tangled Web,” by Jill Donato, Huffington Post August 20
2019
Co-authored, “Trump’s Shutdown Will Hit Black Americans the Hardest,” Huffington Post, January 4
Interviewed on “Monday Morning QB,” WPFW-FM, Washington, D.C., regarding effects of December 2018- January 2019 federal government shutdown on Black Americans, January 14
Dr. Angela Simms
Angela Simms is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at Barnard College-Columbia University. She examines the political economy of United States metropolitan areas through the lens of suburban Black middle-class jurisdictions’ capacity to garner sufficient tax revenue for maintaining high-quality public goods and services.
Prior to academia, Angela served in the federal government for seven years as a Presidential Management Fellow and legislative analyst at the Office of Management and Budget during the George W. Bush and Barack Obama Administrations. She holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Texas-Austin, and a bachelor’s degree in government from William and Mary.
Angela is from Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C. She lives in New York City (Harlem) and is a member of Renaissance Church, where she serves on the prayer ministry. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, running and lifting weights, hiking, and museum exhibits and the performing arts.
