redlining

Researchers analyzed the lingering harms of of decades-old racist lending policies known as redlining. Their project lets you explore the current impacts on maps of 142 cities.

Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation," in which people of color were purposely excluded from suburbs.

In the early 20th century, the federal government categorized neighborhoods, based largely on race, to determine mortgage eligibility. A new site combines the maps — and their revealing backstories.