Final answer:
Black ghettos in American cities developed due to historical and socioeconomic factors, with New City Ghettos forming along highways in places like Los Angeles and Classic Northern style ghettos showing intense segregation in cities like Cleveland.
Discriminatory housing practices, such as real estate covenants and lending discrimination, reinforced residential segregation and limited the ability of black realtors and mortgage companies to help minorities purchase homes in diverse neighborhoods.
Step-by-step explanation:
The morphology and expansion of black ghettos in American cities have been significantly influenced by various historical and socioeconomic factors. New City Ghettos, as evident in places like Los Angeles, Dallas, and Phoenix, arose due to the growth of highway and interstate systems, which paralleled the development of the cities themselves.
These ghettos are characterized by their linear formation along highways and lacked dense urban cores due to the absence of efficient public transportation systems, leading to a spread of single-family homes and multi-family apartments near these accessible routes.
In contrast, Classic Northern style ghettos in cities like Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Milwaukee exhibit intense segregation, with African American populations becoming substantial majorities in inner cities.
The expansion of these neighborhoods was driven by migrations from the South, discriminatory housing practices, and the consequential concentration of minorities in specific urban areas.
These practices included real estate covenants and lending discrimination, which effectively restricted African Americans and other minorities from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods, thus reinforcing residential segregation.
Efforts by black realtors and mortgage companies to serve African American veterans post-World War II faced challenges due to these segregationist practices.
Despite this, the postwar period saw the expansion of ethnic neighborhoods and communities against the backdrop of suburban white flight and resistance to integration, marking a complex and often contentious chapter in American urban history.