In the 1940's, Joseph Levitt and his company "Levitt & Sons" developed a series of housing developments dubbed "Levittown", one of which was located in New York. These neighborhoods encouraged the movement of people from urban locations to the suburbs, however, practices such as redlining preventing African Americans and other minorities from purchasing homes in these areas. This resulted in a very white suburbia, meanwhile inner cities remained predominantly black. These racial disparities are still felt today.
