Suburbanization happened all over the world around that time. E.g. Amsterdam: https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bic.... It happened more in the US than Europe because we had big swaths of empty land while Europe was much more developed already. And it happened as well in American cities that had no segregation to begin with, or non-whites to flee from.
“White flight” happened, but I think urbanists misunderstand the causality. The 1960s economic and technological revolution allowed people to enjoy comfortable suburban lives. Black people were prevented from doing so by economic circumstances and discrimination. But the impulse to leave to city wasn’t caused by that.
Over here in Sweden there was a massive investment in public transport and I think it's called transportation driviven development. So we did not get the same amount of dettached housing. The view of suburbs as comfortable has always been away to exploit the commons of cities like Galesburg. It's not only Galesburg that pays for this, it's the surrounding towns. People live in the suburbs of Galesburg travel to another town making it impossible to use public transport unless everyone works in a star network topology.
We are seeing that develooment in Stockholm now work is much more organic so and the rays of the star are over burdened by suburb transportation (public true, but mostly private).
“White flight” happened, but I think urbanists misunderstand the causality. The 1960s economic and technological revolution allowed people to enjoy comfortable suburban lives. Black people were prevented from doing so by economic circumstances and discrimination. But the impulse to leave to city wasn’t caused by that.