housing discrimination

Washington State Law to Offer Low-Interest Home Loans to Redress Decades of Discriminatory Housing

by James Gregory

Specific practices by private lenders and public authorities have created and perpetuated disparities in homeownership and wealth through real estate. Guided by researchers, Washington State is attempting to compensate for that harm.

Moving To Louisville Brought Me Face to Face with the Racist History of Home Prices

by Jemar Tisby

Neither historical patterns nor contemporary socioeconomic differences can explain why Black Louisvilleans' homes are valued so much lower than whites'. 

How "Sales Comps" Built Racism Into the Housing Market

by Elizabeth Korver-Glenn

The recent ordeal of a Johns Hopkins historian whose house was appraised for more money when he removed pictures of himself and his Black family points to a key finding: the use of sales comparisons to appraise homes enshrines racism in the market. 

Leading Expert on Housing Discrimination Suing Appraisers for Discrimination

“We were clearly aware of appraisal discrimination,” said Dr. Nathan Connolly, 44. “But to be told in so many words that our presence and the life we’ve built in our home brings the property value down? It’s an absolute gut punch.”

High Crimes and Lingering Consequences: How Land Sale Contracts Looted Black Wealth and Gutted Chicago Communities

by Tiff Beatty

Chicago artist Tonika Lewis Johnson is creating public installations documenting properties where Black residents were subjected to predatory contract home sales, and connecting the past to the present struggles of the city's south and west sides.

The Racist Terrorism and Segregation Behind "Midwest Nice"

by Aaron Kinard

The Midwest has a long history of racial exclusion that today manifests in the worst black-white inequality in the nation. "Niceness" can't be allowed to conceal systemic racism. 

The Invention of America's Most Dangerous Idea

by Gene Slater

How did a right-wing conception of "freedom" rooted in the individual's absolute property rights supersede an idea of freedom based in social equality? Blame the real estate industry. 

Unenforceable Racial Covenants are Still Part of Property Deeds Across America

"I'd be surprised to find any city that did not have restrictive covenants," said LaDale Winling, a historian and expert on housing discrimination who teaches at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

How to Ensure a New Redlining Initiative Succeeds

by Robert Henderson and Rebecca Marchiel

Ensuring equity in mortgage lending requires understanding why the Community Reinvestment Act failed to achieve the same goal decades ago, through a better awareness of the ongoing problems in mortgage lending. 

Redlining: What is It?

"Though the maps were internal documents that were never made public by the federal government, their ramifications were obvious to Black homeowners who could not get home loans that were backed by government insurance programs."

The Odd Place of one Savannah Neighborhood in the History of Redlining

by Todd Michney

The history of the Cuyler-Brownville area shows that HOLC risk assessments and Federal lending practices were responsive to local banks' perception of lending risk and desire for profit, factors which resulted in the rarity of an African American community retaining a "green" rating. 

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver Ties the History of Housing Discrimination to Reparations

John Oliver breaks down the long history of housing discrimination in the U.S., the damage it’s done, and, crucially, what we can do about it.

New Study: 5 Ways Racist 1930s Housing Policies Still Haunt Schools

Past discriminatory housing policies have been determined to be a major factor in the black-white wealth gap. A new report has linked redlining to present-day inequalities in education. 

The Mirage of the Black Middle Class

by Anne Helen Petersen

Economic policy debates center on restoring the security of the middle class, but this overlooks that high-earning Black Americans have and still face structural impediments to building wealth through homeownership. 

Historians Nathan Connolly and Beryl Satter Interviewed On Housing Discrimination in the Jim Crow US and The Case for Reparations

Nathan Connolly is the Herbert Baxter Adams Associate Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University and Beryl Satter is Professor of History at Rutgers University.

Michael Cohen revealed Trump doesn’t understand America’s racist past

by Elizabeth A. Herbin-Triant

Ghettos exist because of housing discrimination.