Color of Law Response

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Jan 9, 2024

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Annie Krzywicki Urban Geography Dr. Meghan Cope Color of Law Response Although the act of segregation is thought to have been in action long ago, the ramifications highly persist today and in fact, are the reason why we see our urban spaces the way we do. The institutionalized policies that have been written in our past have caused adverse effects, separating African Americans from the prioritized white neighborhoods, and the “Color of Law,” examines this closely. Beginning the chapter, Rothstein quotes, “So an account of de jure residential segregation has to include not only how public policy geographically separated African Americans from whites but also how federal and state labor market policies, with undisguised racial intent, depressed African American wages.” (Rothstein p. 154). Essentially what Rothstein is saying here is that there have been policies dating back to the 1860s that have adversely put African Americans at a disadvantage when thinking in terms of housing and labor markets, allowing in-access and segregation of housing to the population. Rothstein also highlights that “most African Americans were denied access to free labor markets … This denial of access was another badge of slavery that Congress was duty bound to eliminate, not to perpetuate.” (Rothstein p. 154.) From the very beginning, African Americans (post-slavery,) were already put at a disadvantage despite being free citizens with little to no access to the free market. In turn, most African Americans were denied the ability to gain access to earning livable wages, predisposing them to houselessness and more risk of being accused of “phony crimes.” This would expose more financial burdens like court fines and fees that would put African Americans at risk of being sold back into plantations are their required sentence for these “phony crimes,” (Rothstein p. 154.) This is a clear example of segregation de jure that has compounded and adversely generated inequities for African Americans that will create more segregation through the policies put in place. De jure segregation can be viewed at both the federal and state levels through top-down methods of governance. An example of this was during the 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt adopted the New Deal which was designed to stimulate the economy post the Great Depression through programs of public works and financial reforms to support the American people. However, at the federal level, there were still many, “…southern Democrats, who were fiercely committed to white supremacy.” (Rothstein p. 155.) Through federal policies, such as

the National Recovery Administration, members of these agencies were able to find loopholes in their services that would only apply to White Americans, denying African Americans equal wages and opportunity. Policies like these initially created a wealth gap between African Americans and White Americans as well as encouraged the exclusion of African Americans from unions and access to workplace rights (Rothstein p. 158.) In congruency with workplace segregation, policies ensured that there would be more barriers going forward that created the suburban segregation that we still see today. The compounded and cross-cutting de jure segregated policies and enforcements from the federal and state levels. Narrowing in on a specific city, Detroit Michigan can arguably be said to have the most evident examples of de jure segregation as the effects persist today. Detroit Michigan is one of the most highly Black populated cities in America and through the “Color of Law,” we can examine certain policies that created segregation. As the New Deal began to support the demographic of the “white-middle class,” arrived the Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) which would allow the new working and middle class to purchase homes through monthly payments over the course of about 15 years. The HOLC conducted appraisals of neighborhoods where local real estate agents would assess the property value of a place based on the “safety” of the neighborhood. This wasn’t as much a safety analysis of neighborhoods, but rather an examination of the presence of African Americans in that location. In neighborhoods with African Americans, the place would earn a “red” color on the color-coded map deeming an area unsafe. Along with the HOLC, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) provided insurance for the loans given by the HOLC and adopted similar appraisals to categorize a neighborhood as low risk of loan “default.” FHA assessments were conducted on whether certain banks should be given the ability to give out loans based on the “risk,” of the neighborhood (Rothstein p. 65.) Therefore, both the HOLC and the FHA distinguished neighborhoods with high populations of African Americans as hazardous to devalue the neighborhoods which led to redlining throughout the US. Detroit is an extreme example of the ramifications of redlining as the city took extreme measures to segregate the city. These measures were conducted to create less “hazardous” neighborhoods for the white middle and working class, who would be taking out loans and having them insured by the FHA. When referencing current maps of the white and black populations in Detroit, it is clear to see the segregation and how the metropolitan city center of Detroit is dense with black populations, and the surrounding suburbs are populated with white populations. This is a common pattern seen in many of our cities, but referring to Detroit specifically is where we can see one specific instance of red-lining also known as the 8-Mile Highway. Back in 1940, a Detroit developer was applying for insurance and was denied by the FHA a loan on the northern end of Detroit, due to its proximity to an African American neighborhood. The developing company then proceeded to build a concrete wall spanning a

half-mile that physically segregated the neighborhoods. After the construction, the FHA approved the loan. The FHA would not only deny loans to African Americans, but similar to this example, the FHA would deny white populations housing within black-populated neighborhoods and would promote “block-busting,” which was propaganda to instill fear in white middle-class homeowners to sell their homes when African Americans were expected to infiltrate and "devalue" the neighborhoods. Through these forms of segregation, we do unfortunately see decreased economic value in segregated black neighborhoods due to the systemic policies and regulations that have been in place as our cities began to prosper during the New Deal. These inequitable barriers in our urban environments need to be addressed and action is required in order to do so. Figure 1 Total White Population: Detroit MI

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