The History of Redlining in San Antonio

H.O.L.C, which was a government-sponsored corporation that was established in 1933 by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation Act under the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, supported redlining because they targeted races such as African Americans and Mexicans. this beginner where they started labeling certain areas. the map being shown represents redlining because this map was used to see what places were "safe" and where the areas were confirmed safe were approved of loans and those in the red were not safe and less desirable were not able to have loans. those areas happened to be predominantly blacks and Mexicans. this began causing division between races where they all stayed in different areas such as whites being in the north, Mexicans in the west/south side, and African Americans being in the east.

this is the deeds of HOLC where Brackenridge is a popular area, which made them not allow African Americans or Mexicans to be able to live in these areas and made it high prices for living in this area. HOLC specifically had areas only whites which where Brackenridge is an example of it because they only let whites have the better areas because they were seen as good to give loans to and anything else financially related to owning properties.

"Since redlined areas were overtly denied opportunities to develop, it left those neighborhoods and residents falling behind other neighborhoods, where businesses, schools, and housing (including property prices) grew. Even though redlining as a practice has been illegal since the passing of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the build-up of suppressed growth has made it so communities of color still feel the effects today. According to a study by the  National Community Reinvestment Coalition , 74 percent of the neighborhoods that were redlined in the 1930s are low-to-moderate income neighborhoods today, and 64 percent are also majority-minority neighborhoods."

this excerpt discusses how redlining can affect the homeownership gap and how that redlining is proven to be bad and illegal that still affects people based on their race and social class that they fall under. the effects of redlining caused other to be more behind and be stuck in a circle to get out of the economy unfairness .

in a "forgotten history" Rothstein says these decades-old housing policies have had a lasting effect on American society. "The segregation of our metropolitan areas today leads ... to stagnant inequality because families are much less able to be upwardly-mobile when they're living in segregated neighborhoods where opportunity is absent," he says. "If we want greater equality in this society, if we want a lowering of the hostility between police and young African-American men, we need to take steps to desegregate." this source discusses how redlining is a "state-sponsored system of segregation". and also how redlining is used to provide housing to white, middle class and showing that lower class would not get the same opportunities for, in this case, housing. redlining on a racial basis has been held by courts to be an illegal practice.

furthermore, in the source " the history of redlining " Lockwood states, "The impact of redlining goes beyond the individual families who were denied loans based on the racial composition of their neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods that were labeled “Yellow” or “Red” by the HOLC back in the 1930s are still underdeveloped and underserved compared to nearby “Green” and “Blue” neighborhoods with largely White populations. Blocks in these neighborhoods tend to be empty or lined with vacant buildings. They often lack basic services, like banking or healthcare, and have fewer job opportunities and transportation options. The government may have put an end to the redlining policies that it created in the 1930s, but it has yet to offer adequate resources to help neighborhoods recover from the damage that these policies have caused and continue to inflict". this source connects with the map stated above explaining the impact it has in today's society and even though the government ended it, there still remains of redlining that doesn't fix any damage that redlining caused to many communities that have been affected

some new insights and knowledge for that our exhibit contribute to the local history of our community is that make more aware of the subject that goes on because never knew the extreme ways they went through just to divide races. a historical thinking concept that relates to this topic is significance and continuity. significance because it has affected many lives back then and continuity is that still doing so for us because people don't fall under a certain expectation or agenda and race is a prevalent topic that comes up to this day. redlining may not be as noticeable as how they were back in the 1930s there some hints that economic segregation happens based on zip codes where they can have certain stores have higher prices for items in one area and have the same product for less in a different place. believe this topic deserves to be preserved and highlighted in the historical record for future generations because deserves more awareness and that since san Antonio is one top economically segregated city it should be mention how it started and where it's leaving off.

While making this Story Map, we learned many new things about Redlining in San Antonio and also how important it is to raise awareness about this issue because it has affected many peoples' lives. Our artifacts were valuable in the sense that they were able to help us better communicate our topic but some limitations that were present were the sources that we were able to collect were mainly secondary sources, I believe that if we had a wider variety of different sources, the exhibition would've been a lot better because it would hold more information. A recommendation that I have for future research and documentation on this topic is that they should have different articles or interviews with people who have actually experienced redlining because I believe that it's important to see through different perspectives and listen or read about people and their experiences with this topic. This project was meaningful in the sense that it gave us more insight into the topic of redlining and how it also gave us new information because before this project, I had no idea what redlining was, but I'm glad that I have learned more about it because it has helped me become more aware of redlining within my community.