24/7 Wall St, August 31, 2021, The Most Segregated Cities in America
The patterns of segregation in many major metropolitan areas can be traced back to laws and legal racial housing policies of the early 20th century used to exclude Black residents from certain neighborhoods. Even after the Supreme Court began to ban explicitly racist zoning policies in the mid-20th century, governments used the federally-backed Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to continue segregation policies.
The HOLC created “residential security” maps according to investment risk, often redlining Black neighborhoods as “hazardous” areas. According to advocacy group National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 74% of the neighborhoods that the HOLC designated as high risk or “hazardous” are low-to-moderate income neighborhoods today, and 64% are minority neighborhoods.
