In the literature of race, there is a premise that redlining prohibited black Americans from developing generational wealth. There are several reasons why one might not witness generational wealth among black Americans as a group compared to other groups. Coleman Hughes on Racial Wealth Gap. I don’t know the answer for the racial wealth gap, however, I perceive these problems as individual challenges. Individuals come from different families with a myriad of relationships to property in the past.
Redlining, according to Wikipedia, “is a discriminatory practice in which financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have significant numbers of racial and ethnic minorities. Redlining has been most prominent in the United States, and has mostly been directed against African-Americans.” Wikipedia even provides a dramatic map of Philadelphia in the 1930s to underscore the scrouge of black neighborhoods redlined out of investment and opportunity for generational wealth. See the neighborhoods in red.
I have no doubt that redlining in the 1930s contributed to the underdevelopment in some black neighborhoods. See generally The Case for Reparations But was redlining part of black American life in the South in the 1930s? In southern suburbs? I was curious about the sweep of redlining as an across the board incident of life outside of big northern cities. And what did I find?
As my readers know well, I grew up on a street in Hickory Hill in then-Chesterfield County, Virginia. My family lived in this all-black enclave within a larger 98% white part of the county since on or about 1870. My great great grandfather purchased 350 acres for a farm and a family place in a mansion house called Chester Lodge in 1871. Every generation since my great great grandfather owned real estate.
Did the evil hand of redlining prevent the generational development of wealth in property? I reached out to a scholar in the business of redlining. I explained where my family had lived in the 1930s. I asked for the relevant and material maps of redlining. What did I discover? The following is the redlining chart for my Hickory Hill in the 1930s:
https://www.arcgis.com/home/webmap/viewer.html?webmap=063cdb28dd3a449b92bc04f904256f62 Type in “Hickory Hill, Virginia” into the search bar and tool around. Look for Twyman Road on the redlining map.
Do you see Twyman Road towards the left in the center? I lived on Twyman Road from 1961 to 1969. Let me repeat, this entire neighborhood called Hickory Hill was 100% black. There is NO redlining in sight. Bankers and lenders were treating my people like everyone else in the country when it came to financing and homeownership which makes perfect sense. The homeowners had owned their homes and properties for generations as of the 1930s and the Great Depression.
Conclusion: I am going to repeat myself this lovely Sunday afternoon in San Diego. If there are over 40 million black Americans, there are over 40 million stories, experiences and perspectives. Redlining was alien to my people in the 1930s. Who gains when we conflate the redlining stories from Philadelphia and other big cities with black middle American stories of generational home ownership in suburbs?
Don’t believe the redlining hype. Question the individual experience of individual families. Race bores me.
Good evening!