Editing Phoenix, Arizona (section)

===Post-World War II explosive growth===
A town that had just over 65,000 residents in 1940 became America's fifth most populous city by 2020, with a population of nearly 1.6 million, and millions more in nearby suburbs. After the war, many of the men who had undergone their training in Arizona returned with their new families. Learning of this large untapped labor pool enticed many large industries to move their operations to the area.<ref name=Phxgov /> In 1948, high-tech industry, which would become a staple of the state's economy, arrived in Phoenix when [[Motorola]] chose Phoenix as the site of its new research and development center for military electronics. Seeing the same advantages as Motorola, other high-tech companies, such as [[Intel]] and [[McDonnell Douglas]], moved into the valley and opened manufacturing operations.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/history/2015/05/14/125-republic-anniversary-arizona-internment-camps-high-tech-firms/27188081/ |newspaper=Arizona Republic |date=May 14, 2015 |title=1940s in Arizona: Internment camps and high-tech firms |access-date=March 22, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225075921/https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/history/2015/05/14/125-republic-anniversary-arizona-internment-camps-high-tech-firms/27188081/ |archive-date=February 25, 2021 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Urbanization and Sustainability | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGa-DCN5ODoC&pg=PA164 | editor-first1=Christopher G. | editor-last1=Boone |editor-first2=Michail |editor-last2=Fragkias | publisher=Springer Science & Business Media | year=2012 | pages=64–65 | isbn=9789400756663 }}</ref>

By 1950, over 105,000 people resided in the city and thousands more in surrounding communities.<ref name=Phxgov /> The 1950s growth was spurred on by advances in air conditioning, which allowed homes and businesses to offset the extreme heat experienced in Phoenix and the surrounding areas during its long summers. There was more new construction in Phoenix in 1959 alone than from 1914 to 1946.<ref name=AZed>{{cite web |url=http://www.arizonaedventures.com/reference-guide/arizona-history-timeline/20th-century/ |title=20th Century |publisher=Arizona Edventures |access-date=February 5, 2014 |archive-date=February 22, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222055917/http://www.arizonaedventures.com/reference-guide/arizona-history-timeline/20th-century/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Like many emerging American cities at the time, Phoenix's spectacular growth did not occur evenly. It largely took place on the city's north side, a region that was nearly all Caucasian. In 1962, one local activist testified at a [[United States Commission on Civil Rights|US Commission on Civil Rights]] of hearing that of 31,000 homes that had recently sprung up in this neighborhood, not a single one had been sold to an African-American.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest|last = Needham|first = Andrew|publisher = Princeton University Press|year = 2014|location = Princeton, NJ|pages = 84}}</ref> Phoenix's African-American and Mexican-American communities remained largely sequestered on the south side of town. The color lines were so rigid that no one north of [[Van Buren Street (Arizona)|Van Buren Street]] would rent to the African-American baseball star [[Willie Mays]], in town for spring training in the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest|last = Needham|first = Andrew|publisher = Princeton University Press|year = 2014|location = Princeton, NJ|pages = 86}}</ref> In 1964, a reporter from ''[[The New Republic]]'' wrote of segregation in these terms: "Apartheid is complete. The two cities look at each other across a golf course."<ref>{{Cite book|title = Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest|last = Needham|first = Andrew|publisher = Princeton University Press|year = 2014|location = Princeton, NJ|pages = 87}}</ref>