Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

We examine the relationship between the early 20th-century practice of redlining in housing markets and contemporary school segregation in Oakland, California, using maps from the Home Owners Loan Corporation and school-level demographic data from 1990, 2000, and 2010. White students were more consistently isolated in schools in higher-graded neighborhoods. Black and Hispanic students had less exposure to white students and were more isolated in schools in lower-graded neighborhoods. Patterns for Asian Pacific Islander students were mixed. The association between redlining practices from the 1930s and recent patterns of school segregation provides insight into the persistent and intergenerational effects of metaracism.

Keywords

urban development racism housing race school segregation

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Aaronson

Hartley

Mazumder

(2021). The effects of the 1930s HOLC “redlining” maps. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13(4), 355–392. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20190414

Aaronson

Hartley

Mazumder

Stinson

(2023). The long-run effects of the 1930s redlining maps on children. Journal of Economic Literature, 61(3), 846–862. https://doi.org/10.1257/jel.20221702

Anderson

(2020). Redlining’s legacy of inequality:$212,000 less home equity, low home ownership rates for Black families. Redfin. https://www.redfin.com/blog/redlining-real-estate-racial-wealth-gap/

Anyon

(2005). What “counts” as educational policy? Notes toward a new paradigm. Harvard Educational Review, 75(1), 65–88. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.75.1.b032m1352742641n

Ashcraft

Bech

M. L.

Frame

W. S.

(2010). Federal Home Loan Bank System: The lender of next-to-last resort? Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 42(4), 551–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1538-4616.2010.00299.x

Ashenfelter

Collins

W. J.

Yoon

(2006). Evaluating the role of Brown v. Board of Education in school equalization, desegregation, and income of African Americans. American Law and Economics Review, 8(2), 213–248. https://doi.org/10.1093/aler/ahl001

Baum-Snow

Lutz

B. F.

(2011). School desegregation, school choice, and changes in residential patterns by race. The American Economic Review, 101(7), 3019–3046. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.101.7.3019

Brennan

J. F.

(2015). The impact of depression-era Homeowners’ loan corporation lending in greater Cleveland, Ohio. Urban Geography, 36(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2014.956418

Card

Mas

Rothstein

(2008). Tipping and the dynamics of segregation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 123(1), 177–218. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.1.177

10.

Card

Rothstein

(2007). Racial segregation and the Black-White test score gap. Journal of Public Economics, 91(11-12), 2158–2184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2007.03.006

11.

Carrozzo

P. M.

(2008). A new deal for the American mortgage: The home Owners’ loan corporation, the national housing act, and the birth of the national mortgage market. University of Miami Business Law Review, 17(1), 1–46.

12.

Carter

P. L.

Welner

K. G.

(2013). Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199982981.001.0001

13.

Castro

Siegel-Hawley

Bridges

Williams

S. E.

(2023). Drawn into policy: A systematic review of school rezoning rationales, processes, and outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 94(4), 539–583. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543231195816

14.

Charles

K. K.

Hurst

(2002). The transition to home ownership and the black-white wealth gap. Review of Economics and Statistics, 84(2), 281–297. https://doi.org/10.1162/003465302317411532

15.

Choi

Herbert

Winslow

Browne

(2019). Long Island divided. Newsday. https://projects.newsday.com/long-island/real-estate-agents-investigation/

16.

Clark

W. A. V.

(1988). School integration impacts on residential change: Evaluation and tests. Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, 6(4), 475–488. https://doi.org/10.1068/c060475

17.

Clotfelter

C. T.

(1976). The Detroit decision and ‘white flight’. The Journal of Legal Studies, 5(1), 99–112. https://www.jstor.org/stable/724076 https://doi.org/10.1086/467546

18.

Clotfelter

C. T.

(2001). Are whites still fleeing? Racial patterns and enrollment shifts in urban public schools, 1987-1996. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 20(2), 199–221. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.2022

19.

Condron

D. J.

Tope

Steidl

C. R.

Freeman

K. J.

(2013). Racial segregation and the black/white achievement gap, 1999 to 2009. The Sociological Quarterly, 54(1), 130–157. https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12010

20.

Conley

(1999). Being Black, living in the red: Race, wealth, and social policy in America. University of California Press.

21.

Crossney

K. B.

Bartelt

D. W.

(2005). Residential security, risk, and race: The Home Owners’ loan corporation and mortgage access in two cities. Urban Geography, 26(8), 707–736. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.26.8.707

22.

Dean

(2024). The racial wealth gap 1992 to 2022. National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC). https://ncrc.org/the-racial-wealth-gap-1992-to-2022/

23.

Denton

N. A.

(1996). The persistence of segregation: Links between residential segregation and school segregation. Minnesota Law Review, 80(4), 795–824. https://doi.org/10.24926/265535.2897

24.

Diamond

J. B.

(2024). Defending the color line: White supremacy and the legacy of brown. Educational Researcher, 53(3), 135–145. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X231216450

25.

Diette

T. M.

Hamilton

Goldsmith

A. H.

Darity

W. A.

(2021). Does the Negro need separate schools? A retrospective analysis of the racial composition of schools and black adult academic and economic success. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 7(1), 166–186. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2021.7.1.10

26.

Doren

Grodsky

(2016). What skills can buy: Transmission of advantage through cognitive and noncognitive skills. Sociology of Education, 89(4), 321–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038040716667994

27.

Du Bois

W. B.

(1935). Does the Negro need separate schools? Journal of Negro Education, 4(3), 328–335. https://doi.org/10.2307/2291871

28.

El Nasser

(2011). Blacks leaving major cities; more seek suburbs and better weather. USA Today, p. 1A.

29.

Erickson

A. T.

Highsmith

A. R.

(2018). The neighborhood unit: Schools, segregation, and the shaping of the modern metropolitan landscape. Teachers College Record, 120(3), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811812000308

30.

Faber

(2021). Contemporary echoes of segregationist policy: Spatial marking and the persistence of inequality. Urban Studies, 58(5), 1067–1086. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020947341

31.

Farley

(1975). Residential segregation and its implications for school integration. Law and Contemporary Problems, 39(1), 164–193. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol39/iss1/7 https://doi.org/10.2307/1191117

32.

Federal Housing Administration (FHA). (1938). Underwriting manual: Underwriting and valuation procedure under Title II of the National Housing Act. U.S. Government Printing Office. https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/Federal-Housing-Administration-Underwriting-Manual.pdf

33.

Fishback

Rose

Snowden

Storrs

(2024). New evidence on redlining by Federal housing programs in the 1930s. Journal of Urban Economics, 141, 103462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103462

34.

Frankenberg

(2013). The role of residential segregation in contemporary school segregation. Education and Urban Society, 45(5), 548–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124513486288

35.

Frey

W. H.

(2021). 2020 Census: Big cities grew and became more diverse, especially among youth. Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/2020-census-big-cities-grew-and-became-more-diverse-especially-among-their-youth/

36.

General Accounting Office. (2016). Better use of information could help agencies identify disparities and address racial discrimination (Report to Congressional Requesters: 16-345). Washington, DC: Author.

37.

Gibbons

(2023). Evaluating the association between Home Owners’ loan corporation redlining and concentrated black poverty. Journal of Urban Affairs, 47(3), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2206035

38.

Goldsmith

P. R.

(2009). Schools or neighborhoods or both? Race and ethnic segregation and educational attainment. Social Forces, 87(4), 1913–1941. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0193

39.

Green

R. K.

Wachter

S. M.

(2005). The American mortgage in historical and international context. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 19(4), 93–114. https://doi.org/10.1257/089533005775196660

40.

Greer

(2012). The Home Owners Loan Corporation and the development of the residential security maps. Journal of Urban History, 39(2), 275–296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144212436724

41.

Han

(2024). Undivided: The quest for racial solidarity in an American church. Knopf.

42.

Harris

C. I.

(1993). Whiteness as property. Harvard Law Review, 106(8), 1707–1791. https://doi.org/10.2307/1341787

43.

Hillier

A. E.

(2003). Redlining and the Home Owners’ loan corporation. Journal of Urban History, 29(4), 394–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144203029004002

44.

Hillier

A. E.

(2005). Residential security maps and neighborhood appraisals: The Home Owners’ loan corporation and the case of Philadelphia. Social Science History, 29(2), 207–233. https://doi.org/10.1017/S014555320001292X

45.

Hoffman

J. S.

Shandas

Pendleton

(2020). The effects of historical housing policies on resident exposure to intra-urban heat: A study of 108 US urban areas. Climate, 8(1), 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli8010012

46.

Jackson

K. T.

(1980). Race, ethnicity, and real estate appraisal: The Home Owners Loan Corporation and the Federal Housing Administration. Journal of Urban History, 6(4), 419–452. https://doi.org/10.1177/009614428000600404

47.

Johnson

M. S.

(1991). Urban arsenals: War housing and social change in Richmond and Oakland, California, 1941-1945. Pacific Historical Review, 60(3), 283. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310377210

48.

Johnson

(2010). Assessing neighborhood racial segregation and macroeconomic effects in the education of African Americans. Review of Educational Research, 80(4), 527–575. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654310377210

49.

Katznelson

(2005). When affirmative action was white: An untold history of racial inequality in twentieth-century America. W. W. Norton.

50.

Kirp

D. L.

(1982). Just schools: The idea of racial equality in American education. University of California Press.

51.

Ladson-Billings

(2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in U.S. Schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035007003

52.

Laws

(2020). Why we capitalize Black (and not ‘white’). Columbia Journalism Review. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php

53.

Lerner

(2020). One home, a lifetime of impact. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/23/black-homeownership-gap/

54.

Lipman

(2011). The new political economy of urban education: Neoliberalism, race, and the right to the city. Routledge.

55.

Lipsitz

(2006). The possessive investment in whiteness: How people profit from identity politics. Temple University Press.

56.

Lipsitz

(2011). How racism takes place. Temple University Press.

57.

Logan

J. R.

Oakley

Stowell

(2008). School segregation in metropolitan regions, 1970-2000: The impacts of policy choices on public education. American Journal of Sociology, 113(6), 1611–1644. https://doi.org/10.1086%2F587150

58.

Logan

J. R.

Zhang

Oakley

(2017). Court orders, white flight, and school district segregation, 1970-2010. Social Forces, 95(3), 1049–1075. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/sow104

59.

Markley

(2024). Federal ‘redlining’ maps: A critical reappraisal. Urban Studies, 61(2), 195–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/00420980231182336

60.

Massey

D. M.

Denton

N. A.

(1988). Dimensions of residential segregation. Social Forces, 67(2), 281–315. https://doi.org/10.1093/sf/67.2.281

61.

Michney

T. M.

Winling

(2020). New perspectives on New Deal housing policy: Explicating and mapping HOLC loans to African Americans. Journal of Urban History, 46(1), 150–180. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144218819429

62.

Milner

H. R.

(2007). Race, culture, and researcher positionality: Working through dangers seen, unseen, and unforeseen. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 388–400. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X07309471

63.

Milner

H. R.

(2012). But what is urban education? Urban Education, 47(3), 556–561. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085912447516

64.

Minow

(2010). In Brown's wake: Legacies of America's educational landmark. Oxford University Press.

65.

Mitchell

Franco

(2018). HOLC ‘redlining’ maps: The persistent structure of segregation and economic inequality. NCRS Research. https://ncrc.org/holc/

66.

Mitchell

D. E.

Batie

Mitchell

R. E.

(2009). The contributions of school desegregation to housing integration: Case studies in two large urban areas. Urban Education, 45(2), 166–193. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085908322711

67.

Moore

Montojo

Mauri

(2019). Roots, race, and place: A history of exclusionary housing in the San Francisco Bay Area. Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, University of California Berkeley. https://belonging.berkeley.edu/rootsraceplace

68.

Mordechay

Mickey-Pabello

Ayscue

J. B.

(2023). Gentrification and schools: Challenges, opportunities and policy options. The Civil Rights Project/Projecto Derechos Civiles. https://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/k-12-education/integration-and-diversity/gentrification-and-schools-challenges-opportunities-and-policy-options/GentrificationCA-122023-post-fix-funder.pdf

69.

Moxley

Fischer

(2020). Historic HOLC redlining in Indianapolis and the legacy of the environmental impacts. Journal of Public and Environmental Affairs, 1(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.14434/jpea.v1i1.30321

70.

Namin

Zhou

Beyer

K. M. M.

(2020). The legacy of the Home Owners’ loan corporation and the political ecology of urban trees and air pollution in the United States. Social Science & Medicine, 246, 112758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112758

71.

Nelson

R. K.

Winling

, et al. (2023). Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America. Digital Scholarship Lab. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining

72.

Omi

(2001). The changing meaning of race. In Smelser

Wilson

W. J.

Mitchell

(Eds.), America becoming: Racial trends and their consequences (pp. 243–263). National Academies Press.

73.

Orfield

(1995). Housing and the justification of school segregation. University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 143(5), 1397–1406. https://doi.org/10.2307/3312481

74.

Orfield

(2009). Reviving the goal of an integrated society. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.

75.

Orfield

(2013). Housing segregation produces unequal schools. In Carter

P. L.

Welner

K. G.

(Eds.), Closing the opportunity gap: What America must do to give every child an even chance (pp. 40–60). Oxford University Press.

76.

Orfield

Frankenberg

Siegel-Hawley

(2016). Brown at 62: School segregation by race, poverty, and state. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.

77.

Orfield

Frankenberg

Kuscera

(2014). Brown at 60: Great progress, a long retreat, and an uncertain future. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.

78.

Orfield

Lee

(2007). Historic reversals, accelerating resegregation, and the need for new integration strategies. Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles.

79.

Owens

Reardon

S. F.

Kalogrides

Jang

Tom

(2022). Measuring segregation with the normalized exposure index. CA: Sol Price Center for Social Innovation. https://socialinnovation.usc.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Measuring-Segregation-with-the-Normalized-Exposure-Index_Rnd6.pdf

80.

Pew Research Center. (2015). The whys and hows of generations research. DC: Author. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2015/09/03/the-whys-and-hows-of-generations-research/

81.

Powers

J. M.

(2014). From segregation to school finance: The legal context for language rights in the United States. Review of Research in Education, 38(1), 81–105. https://doi.org/10.3102/0091732X13506550

82.

Powers

J. M.

Patton

(2008). Between Mendez and Brown: Gonzales v. Sheely (1951) and the legal campaign against segregation. Law & Social Inquiry, 33(1), 127–171. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-4469.2008.00096.x

83.

Reardon

S. F.

Grewal

E. T.

Kalogrides

Greenberg

(2012). Brown fades: The end of court-ordered school desegregation and the resegregation of American public schools. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 31(4), 876–904. https://doi.org/10.1002/pam.21649

84.

Reardon

S. F.

Kalogrides

Shores

(2019). The geography of racial/ethnic test score gaps. American Journal of Sociology, 124(4), 1164–1221. https://doi.org/10.1086/700678

85.

Reardon

S. F.

Yun

J. T.

(2005). Integrating neighborhoods, segregating schools: The retreat from school desegregation in the South, 1990-2000. In Boger

J. C.

Orfield

(Eds.), School resegregation: Must the south turn back (pp. 51–69). University of North Carolina Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807876770_boger.6

86.

Rhomberg

(2004). No there there: Race, class, and political community in Oakland. University of California Press.

87.

Richardson

Mitchell

Edebi

(2020b). Gentrification and disinvestment 2020: Do opportunity zones benefit or gentrify low-income neighborhoods? DC: National Community Reinvestment Coalition. https://ncrc.org/gentrification20/

88.

Richardson

Mitchell

Edebi

Meier

H. C. S.

Lynch

(2020a). The lasting impact of historic ‘redlining’ on neighborhood health: Higher prevalence of COVID-19 factors. DC: National Community Reinvestment Coalition. https://ncrc.org/holc-health/

89.

Richardson

Mitchell

Franco

(2019). Shifting neighborhoods: Gentrification and cultural displacement in American cities. DC: National Community Reinvestment Coalition. https://ncrc.org/gentrification/

90.

Rivkin

S. G.

(1994). Residential segregation and school integration. Sociology of Education, 67(4), 279–292. https://doi.org/10.2307/2112817

91.

Rose

(2024). Metaracism: How systemic racism devastates Black lives and how we break free. Basic Books.

92.

Rothstein

(2017). The color of law: A forgotten history of how our government segregated America. Norton.

93.

Rothstein

(2023). Just action: How to challenge segregation enacted under the color of law. Liveright.

94.

Rucks-Ahidiana

(2020). Racial composition and trajectories of gentrification in the United States. Urban Studies, 58(13), 2721–2741. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020963853

95.

Rutan

D. Q.

Glass

M. R.

(2018). The lingering effects of neighborhood appraisal: Evaluating redlining’s legacy in Pittsburgh. The Professional Geographer, 70(3), 339–349. https://doi.org/10.1080/00330124.2017.1371610

96.

Sander

R. H.

Kucheva

Y. A.

Zasloff

J. M.

(2018). Moving toward integration: The past and future of fair housing. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674919891

97.

Saporito

Sohoni

(2006). Coloring outside the lines: Racial segregation in public schools and their attendance boundaries. Sociology of Education, 79(2), 81–105. https://doi.org/10.1177/003804070607900201

98.

Schafran

(2018). The road to resegregation: Northern California and the failure of politics. CA: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/california/9780520286443.001.0001

99.

Schwartz

Onnen

Craigmile

P. F.

Roberts

M. E.

(2021). The legacy of redlining: Associations between historical neighborhood mapping and contemporary tobacco retailer density in Ohio. Health and Place, 68, 102529. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102529

100.

Self

(2003). American Babylon: Race and the struggle for postwar Oakland. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400844173

101.

Spencer

J. P.

(2012). In the crossfire: Marcus Foster and the troubled history of American school reform. University of Pennsylvania Press.

102.

Stone

G. R.

Seidman

L. M.

Sunstein

C. R.

Tushnet

M. V.

Karlan

P. S.

(2005). Constitutional law (5th ed.). Aspen.

103.

Taeuber

K. E.

(1975). Demographic perspectives on housing and school segregation. Wayne State Law Review, 21(3), 833–850.

104.

Taeuber

K. E.

(1979). Housing, schools, and incremental segregative effects. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 441(1), 157–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/000271627944100112

105.

Tarasawa

B. A.

(2012). Live and learn? Contradictions in residential patterns and school demographics. Education and Urban Society, 44(6), 655–671. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124511406721

106.

Taylor

K. Y.

(2019). Race for profit: How banks and the real estate industry undermined Black homeownership. University of North Carolina Press.

107.

Tilly

(1998). Durable inequality. University of California Press.

108.

Trujillo

T. M.

Hernández

L. E.

Jarrell

Kissell

(2014). Community schools as urban district reform: Analyzing Oakland’s policy landscape through oral histories. Urban Education, 49(8), 895–929. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085914557644

109.

Urban Institute. (2024). Nine charts about wealth inequality in America. https://apps.urban.org/features/wealth-inequality-charts/

110.

Watson

T. N.

(2021). Confronting racism in teacher education: Narratives from teacher educators. Routledge.

111.

Wells

A. S.

(2018). The process of racial resegregation in housing and schools: The sociology of reputation. In Scott

R. A.

Kosslyn

S. M.

Buchmann

(Eds.), Emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences (pp. 1–14). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118900772.etrds0457

112.

Wheelock

D. C.

(2008). The federal response to home mortgage distress: Lessons from the great depression. Federal Reserve Bank of Saint Louis Review, 90(3), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.20955/r.90.133-148

113.

Winn

(2020) Eliminating racism in Pinecreek? (Publication No. 27838395). Doctoral dissertation, Arizona State University. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

114.

Withers

S. D.

Reid

C. K.

(2005). Racial differences in intergenerational wealth transfers and access to homeownership. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America. https://paa2005.princeton.edu/papers/51443

115.

Wolf

E. P.

(1977). Northern school desegregation and residential choice. The Supreme Court Review, 1977, 63–85. https://doi.org/10.1086/scr.1977.3109508

116.

Woods

L. L.

II . (2012). The Federal Home Loan Bank Board, redlining, and the national proliferation of racial lending discrimination, 1921-1950. Journal of Urban History, 38(6), 1036–1059. https://doi.org/10.1177/0096144211435126

117.

Yellen

J. L.

(2016). Perspectives on inequality and opportunity from the survey of consumer finances. RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, 2(2), 44–59. https://doi.org/10.7758/RSF.2016.2.2.02

118.

Zhang

(2011). School desegregation and white flight revisited: A spatial analysis from a metropolitan perspective. Urban Geography, 38(8), 1208–1226. https://doi.org/10.2747/0272-3638.32.8.1208

The Durable Inequality of Redlining: HOLC Neighborhood Ratings and Contemporary School Segregation in Oakland

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References