From Housing Segregation to Educational Inequality

Systemic inequity is deeply woven into the fabric of American history, with redlining being one particularly noticeable pattern. Imagine a city map with lines cutting through it that not only represented property prices but also dictated the future of entire generations. Redlining, which originated from 1930s discriminatory housing practices, sowed the seeds of educational inequality that persist to this day in addition to segregating neighbourhoods.

Following the great depression in 1930, the United States Federal Housing Agency (FHA) issued housing mortgages insured by the government to rectify the financial crisis. Between 1935 and 1940, the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) assigned a 4-tier A to D security ranking system for residential neighbourhoods across 239 cities, based on 'environmental hazards' and racial demographics to determine which areas were safe for investment. Neighbourhoods ranked (A) were deemed lowest-risk and were mainly occupied by affluent white residents, and (D) being high-risk, primarily comprised Black and non-white residents, and such areas were marked in red, hence the term Redlining. Following the deep-rooted legacy of segregation in the U.S. the demographic of the redlined neighbourhoods consisted of 'outcast' populations such as Jews, African Americans, newly arrived immigrants, Catholics, and other minority groups. The area descriptions associated with the redlined neighbourhoods were often ascribed in racist, classist, and xenophobic terminology, and to this day, the formerly redlined areas have a strong positive correlation with impoverishment across key areas such as health, education, security, financial, and other measures of inequality.

FHA staff concluded that no loan could be economically secure if the property was located in a neighbourhood that was or had the potential to be occupied by racial minorities, as the property was at risk of declining over the life of the 15- to 20-year loans that they were attempting to legitimise. For instance, the FHA's  1938 Underwriting Manual  highlighted the negative impact resulting from the "infiltration of inharmonious racial groups" on credit risk. To alleviate that risk, it recommended  restrictive covenants  that prevent "the occupancy of properties except by the race for which they are intended," which had become customary in the 1920s. For the following three decades, the FHA were more in favour of loans on new construction in suburban areas rather than urban areas with older housing stocks or Black residents. As a result of the redlining criterion, most mortgages were turned down for redline zone residents, impeding homeownership and investment. This went on for more than thirty years, resulting in serious wealth and economic inequality among minority groups as they could not build generational wealth through real estate. Furthermore, this led to substandard living conditions, poor public facilities, overcrowding, and poor housing in the flagged areas.

Following the  1968 Fair Housing Act  which abolished race-based real estate discrimination, African Americans and other minority groups (who could afford to do so) started to move to predominantly white neighbourhoods, which resulted in white people leaving. As if it were not enough, real estate agents would advise white residents to sell their properties to Black families and people of colour for a higher price than the appraised value. This was known as White Flight. This led to a resurgence of white neighbourhoods as white residents moved to affluent areas.

Overall, redlining has had a lingering systemic knock-on effect on racial minorities, perpetuating the racial disparities in U.S. education facilitated by the discriminatory legacy of segregation. Addressing these disparities requires not only acknowledging historical injustices like redlining but also implementing policies and initiatives aimed at promoting equitable access to education and economic opportunities for all individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity, such as offering aid to first-time buyers (non-white), offering financial relief to historically discriminated groups, and initiating diversity programs in predominantly white educational institutions. Implementing race quotas, and racial bias training in admissions policies at higher education institutions would also be helpful. Encouraging businesses and corporations to employ individuals from diverse backgrounds may also incentivise more non-white young people to take academics seriously as there is a guarantee for employment and potential for better life outcomes

The idea to focus on the aftermath of Redlining in the U.S. emerged as I researched my undergraduate dissertation on Racial Inequalities in Higher Education: College Entry and Completion. While my final project is based on Higher Education in its entirety and complexity, I took this opportunity to focus solely on Redlining as its own topic.