In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) under his New Deal. The intention was to provide homeowners mortgage relief to prevent foreclosure, expanding opportunities to purchase homes. However, in practice, the HOLC and Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would work together to segregate cities across America, devastating urban communities to this day. These divisions still remain prevalent in education and housing policy today, and many communities refuse to integrate, resulting in continued school segregation by wealth and race.
Past U.S administrations have tried to tackle this issue with no meaningful success. In President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration, he signed into law the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which intended to outlaw housing segregation and promote racial integration, giving the government power to “affirmatively further fair housing” and outlawed housing discrimination. Although this law made discrimination illegal on paper, it lacked strong enforcement mechanisms. Even when the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) attempted to enforce pushback, it faced intense political pushback. Former secretaries like George Romney attempted to withhold funding and grants from segregated neighborhoods, attempting to force integration, however was forced out of the cabinet by President Richard Nixon. The Obama Administration attempted to enforce integration by withholding block grants from segregated cities, but ultimately was unsuccessful because it was impossible to enforce the law with the vague language of “affirmatively further fair housing”. Today, segregated cities still receive millions of funding in block grants.
One thing is clear. The U.S remains to be a segregated country both physically: in housing communities and educational facilities, and socially: through public perception and rhetoric. The legacy of redlining has transformed from physical segregation to separation in education and society, continuing to divide the minority and the majority by class. America continues to pretend that we have moved on from segregation.
Just north of Delmar Boulevard, the 2014 U.S Census Bureau shows that the racial majority is “99% Black” whereas south of Delmar shows that the racial majority is “73% White”. Black Americans make a median salary of only $18,000 with a median home value of $73,000 north of Delmar compared to their White American counterparts with a median salary of $50,000 and a median home value of $335,000 in the south. That’s roughly a 4.5 times increase in median home value.
The effects of decades of these policies such as redlining maps drawn by the HOLC, restrictive racial covenants that disallowed Black Americans to buy houses in Homeowners’ Associations (HOAs), and unequal mortgage lending from the FHA have systemically separated Black Americans from the same opportunities as White Americans, resulting in stark economic and racial divides in these communities.
Racial inequality does not simply cease to exist once you outlaw racist practices.
Despite redlining being outlawed, it still exists all over the United States. Racial inequality does not simply cease to exist once you outlaw racist practices. Redistricting placed Black neighborhoods away from jobs and infrastructure, making their opportunities inaccessible. Predatory mortgage practices from the HOLC and FHA disallowed Black Americans from being able to purchase mortgages and become homeowners, eliminating one of the main ways Americans build wealth intergenerationally. Without intergenerational wealth and no way to obtain the same opportunities as White Americans, Black Americans were never able to mobilize up the wealth ladder while White Americans were spoonfed the best opportunities available. On top of that, racist policies like the Fair Labor Standards Act would intentionally target predominantly African American jobs and offer them less protections. Local governments would place higher taxes on African Americans, and the government would refuse to provide the same services that were generously given to White Americans, like mortgage lending. When policy forces a specific group to try and survive in the nation’s most deprived communities; failure is designed. These policies subjugated Black Americans in the past, and as they stay segregated, continue to subjugate them in the present.
School funding in most states remains tied to local property taxes, where the effects of redlining still dictates the quality of public education. Wealthier districts that were deemed as “desirable” or “best” by the HOLC collected higher taxes, fund better facilities, and hire more experienced faculty members who can propel advantaged students into a cycle of wealth and opportunity. Meanwhile, lower-income and historically Black American neighborhoods continue to face issues with overcrowded classrooms, outdated materials, and lower graduation rates. Without integrating these cities, they remain segregated and continue to favor White Americans in opportunity and education.
When policy forces a specific group to try and survive in the nation’s most deprived communities; failure is designed.
Where segregation was once practiced through redistricting neighborhoods labeled red or “hazardous”, it now appears in classrooms. Schools show us an increasing divide between Asian/White students and Black/Latino students through “tracking”, the practice of separating students by what is accessed as academic ability. While the concept of tracking is not inherently unequal, it’s not mere coincidence that an achievement gap remains in the U.S education system with White students on one side and Black and Latino students on the other. Students from underfunded schools–often in historically redlined districts–are less likely to be recommended for advanced or honors tracks due to implicit bias, limited resources, and lower access to programs. Tracking often represents opportunity gaps rather than ability, with White and Asian students tending to be placed in higher tracks with Black and Latino students toward remedial or general courses. In some schools, most classes can be discerned whether they are “Advanced” or “General” based on the racial makeup of the classroom. Educational facilities are increasingly getting worse with Latino and Black Americans only getting poorer.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have become the recent battleground in this new fight for integration. DEI programs were originally designed to promote fair treatment and participation of all people through organizations, creating inclusion and correcting the structural wealth gap of historically underrepresented or discriminated minorities. However, states have begun to dismantle DEI programs using rhetoric that DEI is “reverse discrimination”. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, and it comes from DEI programs and affirmative action being used interchangeably. DEI is inherently not designed in the way the rhetoric claims. There are no quotas and jobs are not being lost to unqualified applicants—DEI is designed purely to create fair treatment and participation of all people through accessibility measures. While the success of DEI varies, the intentions of DEI harm no groups and only have positive implications for equity. Rhetoric frames this to separate minorities in the professional fields by classifying them as “DEI hires”, reminiscent of how housing districts used to classify minorities as “hazardous”. By restricting the practice of DEI and race-based teaching, students lose access to critical discussions and educators are punished for teaching history honestly. By restricting what can be taught, misconceptions are only perpetuated. When legislators and individuals oppose DEI, their implicit message is clear: they are uncomfortable with minorities getting any form of leverage.
Many Americans refuse to acknowledge that these decades of policy choices continue to shape access to quality education and opportunity, turning instead to rhetoric like the infamous “13/50 statistic” which claims that Black Americans who make up 13% of the U.S commit 50% of violent crime. Not only is the figure entirely wrong since it looks at the proportions of arrests rather than the proportions of crimes, it fails to account for the nuances and the deprived communities and resources that these communities are in. The 13/50 argument shifts all accountability from the perpetrators of segregation, and instead onto Black Americans, who are forced to survive in the worst conditions of America.
When race is absent from the classroom, misinformation replaces it.
These misconceptions lie at the heart of one core issue: lack of education. By framing inequality as a matter of individual responsibility or an issue of culture, policymakers can justify cutting DEI initiatives and productive discussions on race relations in classrooms. When race is absent from the classroom, misinformation replaces it. Myths like the “13/50 statistic” or that “segregation no longer exists” thrive because students are never taught the full history of redlining, mass incarceration, police practices, or structural racist policies from the U.S. Ignorance and failure to take accountability allows for these false narratives to become the accepted truth. Until the United States integrates its society or makes efforts to reverse modern segregated communities, especially within our educational facilities, we fail to promote ourselves as a real democracy. By education, individuals are able to distinguish the harmful rhetoric that is stunting the progress towards integration and equity. Individuals need to be able to acknowledge that segregation hasn’t simply disappeared.
The war to close the divide created from redlining over 90 years ago—and to create a more equitable society—will only continue to get worse as educational facilities become more segregated and increasingly restricted on what they can and can’t teach. If we refuse to teach the truth of segregation and race relations, integration will continue to be a polarizing issue. America has never moved on from segregation. These lines, drawn since the 19th century, will never fade if we fail to take accountability for the role that policy continues to play in shaping racial and economic divides. If segregation once determined where people could live, it now determines what people can know.
Thomas Lu ‘29 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at lu.thomas@wustl.edu.