Americans of all economic levels had to live in ghettos such as Bronzeville in Chicago and Harlem in New York City. 1960s civil rights laws allowed wealthier African Americans to emigrate to formerly all-white areas, the economic bases of many ghettos collapsed, leaving them zones of below-average wealth, poorly-maintained housing, and high crime. By the 1970's, the Robert Taylor Homes, located in Chicago's Bronzeville, was home to the poorest and third-poorest census tracts in the United States.

The formation of the ghetto and the black underclass forms one of most controversial issues in sociology.

One of the earliest studies of the modern phenomenon of ghetto formation was Daniel Patrick Moynihan's 1965 work The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, usually simply referred to as the Moynihan Report. The Moynihan Report pointed out that black welfare cases and unemployment were beginning to "disaggregate," that is, the number of black welfare cases were rising while unemployment was falling. The Moynihan Report also pointed out that a quarter of all black children were born to unmarried women and that the percentage was rising. The Moynihan report described the ghetto as a "tangle of pathologies" and predicted that conditions would worsen, not improve, despite the Great Society.

The primary use for corn (seed) in North America is as a feed for livestock, while some is for the production of corn sweeteners like corn syrup, and the production of ethanol. Ethanol, a type of alcohol, is mostly used as an additive in gasoline to increase the octane rating. Human consumption of corn and corn meal constitute only a very small percentage of the North American production. Many scientists speculate that fuel ethanol will mostly be produced from switchgrass and other biomass sources in the future. Corn cobs are also used as a biomass fuel source. Maize is relatively cheap and home heating furnaces have been developed which uses maize kernels as a fuel. They feature a large hopper which feeds the uniformly sized corn kernels (or wood pellets or cherry pits) into the fire.

Some forms of the plant are occasionally grown for ornamental use in the garden. For this purpose, variegated and coloured leaf forms, as well as those with colourful cobs are used.

In 1940, Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovery of transposons while studying maize.

Maize was planted by the Native Americans in hills, in a complex system that planted beans which used the corn plant for support and squashes which provided ground cover to stop weeds. This method was replaced by single species hill planting where each hill 2-4 feet apart was planted with 3 or 4 seeds, a method still used by the home gardener. A later technique was checked corn where hills were placed 40 inches apart in each direction, allowing cultivators to run through the field in two directions. In more arid lands this was altered and seed were planted in the bottom of 4-5 inch deep furrows to collect water. Modern technique plants maize in rows which allows for cultivation while the plant is young. In North America, fields are often planted in a two crop rotation with a nitrogen-fixing crop, often soybeans. Sometimes a third crop, winter wheat is added to the rotation. Fields are usually plowed each year although no-till farming is increasing in use.

Before about World War II, most maize was harvested by hand. This often involved large numbers of workers and associated social events. Some one and two row mechanical pickers were in use but the corn combine did not get adopted until after the War. By hand or mechanical picker, the entire ear is harvested which then requires a separate operation of a corn sheller to remove the kernels from the ear. Whole ears of corn were often stored in corn cribs which is a sufficient form for some livestock use. Some modern farms store maize in this manner and later shell it for sale in the off-season to capture better prices. The combine with a corn head (with points and snap rolls instead of a reel) cuts the stalk near the base and then separates the ear of corn from the stalk so that only the ear and husk enter the machinery. The combine separates the husk and the cob, keeping only the kernels.