When urban centers in America were beginning to take shape, people moved in droves to these industrial metropolises to find work and success. We studied earlier the effects of this mass immigration to cities and saw the horrid living conditions that people endured to find work. The overcrowding of cities made ghettos obvious and wealth was not directly associated with the masses of people moving in. Through the years, urban areas grew with new suburban towns encircling the city. Wealthier people inhabited these suburban areas with the ability to move in and out of cities at their own will.

Cities became a melting pot of cultures in a small area. People of the same ethnic background often moved into neighborhoods in which their own culture was dominant as to fit in and feel more at home. These areas are obvious in places such as

Slums were still a problem in urban America, partly due to the people caught in the cyclical poor lives of urban dwelling. During what is called the “white flight”, blacks and other ethnic groups were caught in the city while their white counterparts fled to economically prestigious suburbs. After the war, military loans and low mortgage rates were gives to GI’s, making it easier for these predominantly white soldiers to move into suburban real estate .

Suburban areas expanded even more with the new roadways and highways leading in and out of cities. “By 1950, the population of suburbs, aided by highway construction was growing ten times faster than central cities.” This is important because of the ethnicity and makeup of these outer lying areas. The blacks and ethnic groups stayed in the cities while the whites kept moving out. American Indians began to move into cities under governmental influence, but were segregated into all Indian areas of cities, keeping them from adapting to city life. This separation shows that although cities were trying to convince new immigrants to come, they were not integrating them as such.

In the years following the 80’s, cities have enveloped their own type of culture and class-system, keeping areas segregated. Diff

Some topics in this essay:
American Dream, Segregation Urban, Lyndon Johnson, American Indians, Discrimination South, Chicago Detroit, King Jr, Southie Boston, segregation cities, urban centers, american dream, american cities, blacks ethnic, move cities, industrial cities,