I was talking to a white friend again about redlining. They’d never heard of the practice and were curious to hear more. As I shared some of the history, their face changed.
Redlining meant denying mortgages based on race. Banks and the government marked those neighborhoods in red on maps. Live inside the line? No loan for you.
The practice traces back to the 1930s New Deal era.
In 1933, the federal government created the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) to help stabilize the housing market and refinance mortgages at risk of foreclosure during the Great Depression. Between 1935 and 1940, HOLC produced “Residential Security Maps” for more than 200 cities, grading neighborhoods from “A” (most desirable) to “D” (hazardous). The lowest grade, often shaded red on these maps, was assigned largely to neighborhoods with Black, immigrant, and low-income residents, regardless of the actual condition of the housing stock.
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