The persistent finding of a racial gap in residential attainment between African Americans and whites has led to a critique, which argues that spatial assimilation theory does not explain the residential segregation of African Americans, even though it explains segregation for other groups. That critique is typically based on analyses of cross‐sectional data, which do not take into account demographic context. In this paper, I examine demographically adjusted exposure scores for educational categories of race and ethnic groups in Houston, Texas, between 1970 and 2000. I find that starting in 1980 higher status African Americans achieved greater spatial assimilation. My findings suggest that analyses that rely on demographically appropriate measures and trend data indicate that spatial assimilation theory is relevant to changes in the residential mobility of African Americans. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.