24/7 Wall St., April 27, 2021, The Most Segregated Cities in America
It has been more than five decades since the Fair Housing Act of 1968 outlawed housing discrimination on the basis of race, sex, national origin, and religion, and still segregation persists in some of America’s largest cities, with white Americans living in majority-white neighborhoods and Black Americans in majority-Black neighborhoods.
The HOLC created “residential security” maps according to investment risk, often redlining Black neighborhoods as “hazardous” areas. According to advocacy group National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 74% of the neighborhoods that the HOLC designated as high risk or “hazardous” are low-to-moderate income neighborhoods today, and 64% are minority neighborhoods.
