Redlining and Racine County
Mapping the 80-year legacy of redlining on present-day Racine County residents
Redlining in New Deal America
Like so many other government agencies during the New Deal, Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) and its parent bureau, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, shaped Americans' lives and livelihoods profoundly during and after the Great Depression of the 1930s. Both proved critical to protecting and expanding home ownership, to standardizing lending practices, and to encouraging residential and commercial real estate investment in a flagging economy.
At the very same time, federal housing programs helped codify and expand practices of racial and class segregation. They ensured, moreover, that rampant real estate speculation and environmental degradation would accompany America's remarkable economic recovery and growth.
Over the last thirty years especially, scholars have characterized HOLC's property assessment and risk management practices, as well as those of the Federal Housing Administration, Veterans Administration, and US. Housing Authority, as some of the most important factors in preserving racial segregation, intergenerational poverty, and the continued wealth gap between white Americans and most other groups in the U.S.
Source: Mapping Inequality Project, University of Richmond
Redlining in Racine County
Home Owners' Lending Corporation staff members, using data and evaluations organized by local real estate professionals-- lenders, developers, and real estate appraisers-- in each city, assigned grades to residential neighborhoods that reflected their "mortgage security" that would then be visualized on color-coded maps.
Neighborhoods receiving the highest grade of "A"--colored green on the maps--were deemed minimal risks for banks and other mortgage lenders when they were determining who should received loans and which areas in the city were safe investments. Those receiving the lowest grade of "D," colored red, were considered "hazardous."
The map (pictured right) is a digital recreation of the City of Racine "Residential Security Map" prepared by the Division of Research and Statistics in co-operation with the Home Owners' Lending Corporation in December 1937.
Source: Mapping Inequality Project, University of Richmond
Minority Population
The following map (right) shows the concentration of minority residents in 2020 by neighborhoods within the City of Racine "Residential Security Map" of 1937.
The greatest diversity is concentrated within grade "C" and "D" neighborhoods.
No High School Diploma
Similarly, the greatest concentration of residents without a high school diploma are located within "C" and "D" grade neighborhoods.
Unemployment Rate
Like minority status and lacking a high school diploma, the neighborhoods with the highest unemployment rates are located within "C" and "D" grade neighborhoods.
Unemployment rates in "C" and "D" neighborhoods exceed 19% relative to 9.3% unemployment in a nearby "A" grade neighborhood.
Average Household Income
Average household income in the worst-off "C" and "D" grade neighborhoods is at or below $40,000 relative to the roughly $89,000 average household income in the "A" grade neighborhood.
Lower average household incomes are also concentrated within neighborhoods surrounding Downtown City of Racine.
Homeownership
Fewer owner-occupied homes exist in "C" and "D" grade neighborhoods in spite of greater population density relative to surrounding City of Racine neighborhoods.
Moving Forward
More than 80 years after the Home Owners' Loan Corporation study, many local redlined neighborhoods (grades "C" and "D") retain the worst socioeconomic outcomes-- whether educational attainment, employment status, homeownership, or other factors-- in the City of Racine and Greater Racine metro area.
At the same time, black-white disparities across key socioeconomic outcomes (above) contribute to our current ranking as second worst metro for Black Americans in the United States.
Moving forward, our community must continue addressing interrelated, concentrated challenges, especially within high-need minority neighborhoods.
