How Redlining’s Racist Effects Lasted for Decades
As recently as 2010, they find, differences in the level of racial segregation, homeownership rates, home values
and credit scores were still apparent where these boundaries were drawn.
Lines like these, drawn in cities across the country to separate “hazardous”
and “declining” from “desirable” and “best,” codified patterns of racial segregation and disparities in access to credit.
“We now have evidence that is very systematic and nationwide
that has detailed that these borders did matter,” said Leah Boustan, an economic historian at Princeton familiar with the research, which she called “pathbreaking.”
Historians have long pointed to the significance of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation maps.
