Housing Discrimination in the 1950s

Polling Data

Racial Covenants and Perverse Self-Interest

Findings - Federal Framework

1940s: 55% of Americans felt whites should have the first chance at jobs.

1950s: 96% opposed to interracial marriage.

1963: 60% felt homeowners had a right to bar blacks from a neighborhood.

1973: 65% felt homeowners could racially discriminate in sales, and 40% believed in segregated housing; only 14% believed in school segregation.

2008: 30% felt they had the right to racially discriminate in housing sales.

The GI Bill of 1944 provides the foundation for the American middle class.

The New Deal coalition arranges for benefits eligibility to be

reserved to the states.

Consider: Of the first 67,000 mortgages insured by the GI Bill's

provisions, only 100 are taken out by non-whites.

Racial covenants excluded certain racial categories from owning, renting or using a home. They focused on most non-whites, but especially those who were black.

The Supreme Court ruled covenants illegal in 1948, but its decision was not enforced. The FHA continued to advocate covenants until 1950.

Covenants became widespread in developed urban centers like Seattle, but also in the newly-built suburbs, such as the model Levittowns. The effect was

that the most stable, affluent neighborhoods were closed off to blacks. As black homes were demolished in the inner city, they were unable to flee to the

outskirts like whites could.

The case of William Meyers. A white resident did not hate Meyers personally,

but felt he endangered house values. The police and several white neighbors

came to Meyers' aid when other whites attacked his home. Many Americans

were not principled racists, but embraced racist policies if it preserved their

economic status.

Housing Discrimination in the 1950s

Federal Framework Part II

Primary Sources

Starting in the 1930s, the HOLC and FHA begin creating "security maps." Neighborhoods are valued on a few factors such as race and whether average - i.e. white - buyers would purchase homes there.

Questions:

1. How were blacks discriminated against in housing in the 1950s, which is often known as the "American Golden Age?"

2. What are some of the lasting effects of this discrimination?

1. Legislation (GI Bill; Housing Acts of 1949 and 1953; Shelley v. Kraemer)

2. Urban renewal documents (San Francisco, Chicago)

3. Racial covenants (Seattle; the Levittowns)

4. Opinion polls

The FHA used these maps to determine

eligibility for government-backed mortgages.

The VA adopted these maps as well.

The FHA required banks to use the maps to be eligible for federal support.

Not usually updated, but consider the case of

Detroit.

Urban Renewal

Secondary Sources

Conclusion: Where Are We Now?

Numerous secondary sources, mostly by historians, economists and sociologists. Books, articles, statistics.

Special mention:

Douglas Massey's

"Categorically Unequal"

Urban renewal policies began in the late 40s, but gained federal backing with the Housing Acts of 1949 and 1954. The federal government

required plans for relocating those displaced by renewal, and in return

would pay two-thirds of the costs.

The phenomenon was nationwide, but as an example of the scale involved, the San Francisco Western Addition Plan affected 86,000 people, while Chicago's Lake Meadows Plan dislocated 25,900 families.

Urban renewal used public funding, but almost all land was turned over to private developers at a discount.

Only 10% of the residential land demolished was replaced. Cities like

Chicago limited public housing to 15% of the land.

New residential units were generally for higher incomes, forcing the

poor - mainly non-white - into crowded quarters.

Income: In 2001, blacks made 62.1% of what white families did in terms of median income, compared to 55.3% in 1950.

Wealth: Home equity is the largest source of wealth for most Americans.

3/4 of white Americans own their home, compared to 1/2 of blacks.

In the 1940s and early 1950s, a white family's wealth was 3x that of a

black family.

Those whites born in the 1940s and 1950s today have 11x as much wealth

as those blacks born in the same period.

Conclusion: black incomes have increased, but wealth has dramatically

dropped off. This is a result of housing situations: new municipalities

have shifted the cost of services onto the poor, while low home values in

the inner cities have put minorities at a disadvantage. Whites have been

able to pass home ownership onto their children and grandchildren, while non-whites have not had this privilege.