BleuHistory Vol. 8: Jim Crow and the Second Betrayal

This volume documents: The documented legal architecture of segregation — Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) making "separate but equal" the law of the land; the HOLC Residential Security Maps (1935–1940) which documented racially discriminatory mortgage lending as federal policy; and the Tulsa Race Massacre (1921) as documented destruction of Black wealth. The racial wealth gap is not an accident. It is a documented consequence of documented policy.

Background context: "Redlining" gets its name from the HOLC maps themselves, which literally drew red lines around neighborhoods deemed "Hazardous" (Grade D). The criteria explicitly named race. These federal maps were then used by private banks to determine who received mortgages — the primary wealth-building mechanism in 20th-century America. The maps are digitized and freely available at Mapping Inequality (dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining) from the University of Richmond. You can search any U.S. city.

The Document Says

HOLC Residential Security Maps, 1935–1940

Home Owners' Loan Corporation. Digitized at Mapping Inequality, University of Richmond (dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining). Free.

Documented methodology: the HOLC rated neighborhoods A (Best), B (Still Desirable), C (Declining), and D (Hazardous). Documented criteria for Grade D included: presence of Negro, foreign-born, or Jewish families. Documented consequence: Grade D neighborhoods were denied conventional mortgages. Documented result: Black families were systematically excluded from the primary wealth-building mechanism available to American families in the 20th century.

The Four Questions: (1) Who wrote it? (2) When? (3) What does it say? (4) Why does it matter? Use specific words from the document in every answer.

Q1 — Who created these maps?
A federal New Deal agency — the Home Owners' Loan Corporation. What does documented government authorship tell you about the role of federal policy in the racial wealth gap? This was not a private prejudice — it was federal law.

Q2 — When?
1935–1940, during the New Deal. The New Deal is often taught as a rescue program for all Americans. What does the documented exclusion of Black neighborhoods tell you about who the New Deal was designed to help?

Q3 — What does it say?
The documented criteria for Grade D explicitly name race. Write one sentence naming the documented risk factor and the documented financial consequence of that classification. What does "systematically excluded" mean as a documented policy outcome?

Q4 — Why does it matter?
The Federal Reserve documents a direct connection between redlining and today's racial wealth gap. What does this tell you about whether the wealth gap results from documented choices or documented systems? What does "documented" mean in this context?

Access Mapping Inequality (dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining). Find the HOLC map for Richmond, Virginia or any city of your choice. Identify one Grade D neighborhood. Write the neighborhood name, the documented criteria listed, and apply Question 4:

Write one paragraph: Make a claim about the role of federal policy in creating the racial wealth gap. Cite the HOLC maps as evidence. Explain the documented connection to wealth disparities today (warrant).

What does this primary source document that a textbook's description of the same event would not?