Street trees are an important part of an urban neighborhood’s ecosystem and provide many benefits to the surrounding area. Trees require investment by city governments, as they necessitate careful planning and care. However, certain neighborhoods have historically received lower levels of investment than others. In the 1930s, the United States adopted a federal financial program commonly called “redlining.” The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation divided city neighborhoods into classes based on loan security, resulting in wealthy, typically white neighborhoods receiving the highest designation, an A grade, while poorer neighborhoods were “redlined,” and received a D-grade. This program was racially motivated and targeted people of color. In this study, we analyzed differences in street tree growth and species diversity in neighborhoods in Schenectady, NY to document the effects of institutionalized racism on the ecology of urban neighborhoods. We compared tree size, density, and species diversity between each loan-security designation. There were not enough replications of A-grade neighborhoods within current Schenectady city limits, so we analyzed differences between B-, C-, and D-grade neighborhoods. We found that C- and D-grade neighborhoods had significantly fewer trees in all size classes (small, medium, and large) than B-grade neighborhoods. D-grade neighborhoods also showed lower species diversity in existing trees than C- and B-grade neighborhoods. These contrasts in our findings between the redlined and higher grade neighborhoods show the lasting effects of the dissimilarities in city investment into providing a healthy environment for city residents. These results support our hypothesis that redlining has created an institutionalized racist legacy that reflects continued environmental injustice.