Home Owners' Loan Corporation — Bunk History

Redlining map for Decatur, Illinois

Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America

In the 1930s, the federal government created redlining maps for almost every major U.S. city. Explore those maps and their contexts in a brand new version of this project.

by N. D. B. Connolly, Robert K. Nelson, LaDale Winling, Justin Madron, Todd Michney, Richard Marciano, J. S. Hoffman, Helen C. S. Meier via American Panorama on October 12, 2016

Block level FHA map of Cincinnati.

Pair HOLC Maps With FHA Maps To Tell A More Complete Story

The Federal Home Loan Bank Board openly admitted to operating as the Johnny Appleseed of redlining, sowing its seeds into the private financial system.

by Lawrence T. Brown via The Metropole on August 16, 2023

Bars labeled First through Fourth depicting risk levels for housing loans.

The Shame of the Suburbs

How America gave up on housing equality.

by David Denison via The Baffler on May 9, 2023

Redlining map from the 1930s

The Tyranny Of The Map: Rethinking Redlining

In trying to understand one of the key aspects of structural racism, have we constructed a new moralistic story that obscures more than it illuminates?

by Robert Gioielli via The Metropole on November 3, 2022

Plans for the Baldwin Terrace housing development (Plat Book 22, Page 35, St. Louis County Recorder of Deeds, Clayton, Missouri).

Who Segregated America?

Federal housing policies contributed to the segregation of American cities in the twentieth century. But it was private interests that led the way.

by Colin Gordon via Dissent on June 29, 2022

Collage of a residential security map.

The Lasting Legacy Of Redlining

We looked at 138 formerly redlined cities and found most were still segregated — just like they were designed to be.

by Ryan Best, Elena Mejía via FiveThirtyEight on February 9, 2022

1935 redlining map of the cities of Pawtucket and Central Falls in Rhode Island.

Reporting on Redlining: An Interview with Scott Markley

How can historic data about segregation, redlining, and real estate be more accessible? In this interview, we dive into a new data set derived from HOLC maps.

by Ian Spangler, Scott Markley via Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center on January 23, 2022

Residential Security map of central Chicago, sourced from "Mapping Inequality"

How Academia Laid the Groundwork for Redlining

The connections between private industry and government were much more fluid than was previously imagined.

by LaDale Winling, Todd Michney via Platform on November 1, 2021

Redlining, Race, and the Color of Money

Long after the end of explicit discrimination in the housing market, the federal government continued to manage risk for capital, perpetuating inequality.

by Garrett Dash Nelson via Dissent on July 8, 2021

Neighborhood map of Los Angeles, used to denote quality of neighborhood and living.

Mapping and Making Gangland: A Legacy of Redlining and Enjoining Gang Neighbourhoods in Los Angeles

How race-based legacies of disinvestment initiated by New Deal Era redlining regimes were followed by decades of over-policing at the scale of the neighborhood.

by Stefano Bloch, Susan A. Phillips via Urban Studies on May 13, 2021

The Lines That Shape Our Cities

Connecting present-day environmental inequalities to redlining policies of the 1930s.

by Esri via American Panorama on December 18, 2020

In U.S. Cities, The Health Effects Of Past Housing Discrimination Are Plain To See

Explore maps of 142 cities to see the lingering harms of the racist lending policies known as redlining.

by Maria Godoy via NPR on November 19, 2020

Not Even Past: Social Vulnerability and the Legacy of Redlining

Juxtaposing contemporary public health data with 1930s redlining maps reveals one of the legacies of urban racial segregation.

by Ed Ayers, Robert K. Nelson, National Community Reinvestment Coalition via American Panorama on September 14, 2020

1937 Assessment Grades from the Homeowners' Loan Corporation

Mapping the Legacy of Structural Racism in Philadelphia

An interactive data report presents the impact of structural racism on Philadelphia, mapping 2019’s homicides and present day disadvantage with 1930s redlining maps.

by Rebecca Rhynhart via City Of Philadelphia on January 23, 2020

America’s Formerly Redlined Neighborhoods Have Changed. So Must Solutions to Rectify Them

Are New Deal-era redlining maps still the best available tools for understanding the racial wealth gap?

by Andre M. Perry, David Harshbarger via Brookings on October 14, 2019

Fresno’s Mason-Dixon Line

More than 50 years after redlining was outlawed, the legacy of discrimination can still be seen in California’s poorest large city.

by Reis Thebault via The Atlantic on August 20, 2018

From Food Deserts to Supermarket Redlining

Connecting the dots between discriminatory housing policies in the 1930s and urban food insecurity today.

by Jerry Shannon via Atlanta Studies on August 14, 2018

Home Values Remain Low in Vast Majority of Formerly Redlined Neighborhoods

The long legacy of structural racism in the New Deal-era housing market.

by Sarah Mikhitarian via Zillow Research on April 25, 2018

Redlining and Gentrification

Exploring the deep connections between redlining, gentrification, and exclusion in San Francisco.

via Urban Displacement Project on April 25, 2018

A New Kind Of City Tour Shows The History Of Racist Housing Policy

Redlining tours explain how policies designed to keep minorities out of certain areas shaped the urban landscapes we see today.

by Adele Peters via Fast Company on April 23, 2018

Housing Segregation In Everything

In 1968, the Fair Housing Act made it illegal to discriminate in housing. So why are neighborhoods still so segregated?

by Gene Demby, Maria Paz Gutierrez, Kara Frame via NPR on April 11, 2018

For People of Color, Banks Are Shutting the Door to Homeownership

Reveal’s analysis of mortgage data found evidence of modern-day redlining in 61 metro areas across the country.

by Aaron Glantz, Emmanuel Martinez via Reveal on February 15, 2018

When Government Drew the Color Line

A review of "The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America."

by Jason DeParle via New York Review of Books on February 11, 2018

Who Segregated America?

For all of its strengths, Richard Rothstein’s new book does not account for the central role capitalism played in segregating America's cities.

by Destin Jenkins via Public Books on December 21, 2017

How Redlining Segregated Philadelphia

Decades after civil rights laws overruled policies that starved non-white neighborhoods of investment, deep disparities linger.

by Jake Blumgart via Next City on December 8, 2017

Drawing of someone holding a photo of a Black family in front of a suburban home, and lighting the photo on fire.

America’s Shameful History of Housing Discrimination

The practice of “redlining” kept people of color from home loans for decades.

by Jamie Hibdon via The Nib on September 25, 2017

The Case for Reparations

Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole.

by Ta-Nehisi Coates via The Atlantic on June 23, 2014

Bylaw excerpt of racial restrictions in housing.

A New Law Addresses the Harm Done by Decades of Racist Housing Practices

The Washington state law provides low-interest loans for down payments for those harmed by racially restrictive covenants.

by James N. Gregory via Made By History on May 10, 2023

A collage shows a white hand segregating Black Americans.

No Breakthrough in Sight

More than fifty years after the Fair Housing Act, inequality and segregation persists. What went wrong?

by Kaila Philo via The Baffler on May 9, 2023

Redlining is Only Part of the Story

An annotated collection of resources from the Bunk archive that help explain the long history of housing discrimination.

by Julian Maxwell Hayter on October 5, 2022

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