Kurt Metzger, research director in the WSU Center for Urban Studies, is quoted in an article about U.S. census data that shows a growing number of African Americans in southeastern Michigan are living in the suburbs. In Macomb County , the African-American population grew by 85 percent in four years, and in Oakland almost 15 percent. "This shows there is a growing middle- and upper-middle-class (black) community seeking the same opportunities in education and housing that others have sought after," Metzger said. He speculates that most of those who moved to the more affluent counties came from Detroit and several inner-ring suburbs.