Housing Inequality in AmericaMain MenuThe Generational Illusion: An EssayAn Essay by Collin AndrewsEnvironmental Racism: How Residential Segregation Shapes Environmental InequalityHistoric Preservation Coast to CoastTitle PageNative American Housing: How Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthHow Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthPets & Housing: It's "Ruff" by Katie ClineHow NIMBYism Exacerbates Housing InequalityWhere's the Wealth!How Housing Discrimination has led to racial wealth inequality in the United StatesImmigrant Housing Inequality in AmericaIswat JinadSurveillance InequalityAn investigation into how poor communities are oversurveilled creating a cycle of more targeted and aggressive forms of surveillance for them and those around them.Post-WWII Urban Flight and the Birth of the SuburbsHousing Discrimination in Suburban AmericaRace, Repressive State Apparatus, and Homelessness: From Colonialism to COVID-19Tina NandiHousing Inequality and Access to Quality EducationMQ: Title PageVisualizing racial housing discriminationSplash page for path that includes interactive resources regarding racial housing discriminationProject information and creditsAndy Schocket278555063cc66428c8eadf42f48d412091c5aaf9Melissa Laddab8653014603439710b65435181f2130cee53400Andrew Bartelc9a57442f34fea7858b734ce98f4ec79bd5565b0Collin Andrewsf69afa6ae7fb0f33058b9e0cb476f7451a667cefTina Nandi6e38643c2c1510534cce4e954f0eeb8108bce699Iswat Jinad196dd805bf51f7a46fbf2d94ab069e97fc004d75Marcus Harris7e23857364c2363b25872718aea81323bdd37773James Cousinoe9398a1542d344c824ddaaf967819ae589cd2b61Katie Cline512add1943f75cbd770d4788dcdea90b706922c4Trisha A Bonham7fa13b399c9331700d719225b96f3bf9e54c4570Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410Kristine Ketel826fdfc33a24cff2c1e0ab79396dd2ae2bae3ed9Morgan Quinleyc8a47798c223cced64347bc9a7d80f6a64402e45
M_H national archives
12022-12-06T15:11:10-08:00Marcus Harris7e23857364c2363b25872718aea81323bdd37773412371plain2022-12-06T15:11:10-08:00Marcus Harris7e23857364c2363b25872718aea81323bdd37773"The Great Migration (1910 - 1970)", The National Archives, last updated June 28, https://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/migrations/great-migration
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12022-12-02T05:46:53-08:00The Roots of Housing Discrimination7plain2024-01-15T19:45:17-08:00 The cornerstone of racial discrimination of African Americans in housing was laid in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. Former African slaves, now American citizens had a keen understanding of the importance of land ownership and property seeing that many were considered property themselves. In the post-antebellum South, the practice of share cropping and debt peonage created a system in which many African Americans found it difficult to own land and turn a profit. Many were trapped in the short-term credit cycle with White lenders as they had to borrow against expected harvest to pay for equipment, supplies, and the rent, or mortgage of their land (Newkirk, 2019). If those landowners were unable to pay, they then lost their land to creditors. This cycle established in post-Civil War became the pattern of behavior throughout the Jim Crow era.
Racial discrimination was not isolated to the South. As many African Americans looked to escape the repressive discrimination of the South they migrated north and westward. This period in our history has been dubbed “The Great Migration”. This change in demographics was one of the greatest large movements of people in our country’s history that came in two waves, from 1910-1940, and then from 1945-1970. As our nation engaged in two world wars the industrialized North became a hub for jobs and opportunity. The map below visualizes this mass exodus.
African Americans who came up in the Great Migration arrived to face an environment ripe with racial housing discrimination such as restrictive covenants, reduced access to lending, and redlining, which set in motion the wealth disparity we see today.
