important. when you ensure every neighborhood is mixed, people do everyday things together to be comfortable with each other and most importantly the kids go to the same schools. when the kids grow up, they begin to share a future together. this belief was at the heart of many of the efforts of the united states federal government in the 1950s and 60s to desegregate schools and integrate neighborhoods. to court orders, housing laws and executive actions. those were largely abandoned by the 1980s and since then, the data shows the america that remains strikingly segregated. this residential segregation translated into unequal access and basic health care and crucially, education. despite the fact that they ordered segregation 61 years ago, schools have become less diverse in the last two decades.