Amid the American ideals of equal opportunity and prosperity, ghettos stand out as a glaring contradiction. Ghettos are concentrations of people in cities isolated from the rest of society by their poverty and by their racial and ethnic differences. Ghettos have existed for many centuries in many different cultures. Sometimes they are the result of deliberate government persecution, such as when Jewish people were imprisoned in ghettos in Europe at various times in its past. More often, ghettos are the result of a combination of economic and racial factors combined with government and societal indifference.

Ghettos in America began when the growth of factories in central cities made these cities less desirable because of pollution and noise. People with money left the central cities; those without the money to escape remained behind. As jobs and good incomes left, those who remained—many of whom were African Americans—had...