Chicago redlining: then and now

Context: In 1939, a group called the Home Owners' Loan Corporation created maps that classified neighborhoods in major U.S. cities by the categories best, desirable, declining, and hazardous.

• Redlining was the practice of banks marking with a red line the “hazardous” neighborhoods and determining them not worthy of loans.
• This led to Black communities missing out on owning property and accruing generational wealth after they were forced to stay in the hazardous neighborhoods, reinforcing segregation.

State of play: The practice of housing discrimination is outlawed, but a WBEZ report in 2020 showed that modern-day redlining is still happening in Chicago.

• There are 90% more Black Chicagoans nowadays in redlined communities compared to the surrounding area.

Bigger picture: Chicago neighborhoods continue to be segregated as other American cities like Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., see redlined zones go through gentrification.

• Of the 19 Midwest cities analyzed in the report, 16 were still segregated.
• The U.S. Justice Department announced last fall that it is cracking down on housing discrimination.

Closer look: Here is an actual report from 1939 that focuses on Washington Park. Warning: it's racist.

• View FiveThreeEight's entire report here.