The Chicago Plan, Part 2
Episode 2: The Chicago Plan, Part 2
Air Date: April 25, 2024
Chris L. Jenkins
Director
Narrated By: Linda Kimbrough | Animation Narrated By: Rufus Williams
Animation By: Nate Ziller
When violence failed to keep Blacks from seeking better housing, Chicago’s realtors developed a plan to promote restrictive covenants, which legally prevented white homeowners from selling to Black buyers. Chicago’s racial violence subsided, prompting other U.S. cities to copy their racist real estate practices. When the Great Depression hit, putting almost half of the nation’s mortgages underwater, the federal government made a fateful decision. To devise national housing policy, it looked to private-sector “experts” among Chicago’s realtors. Realtors wrote the rules and investment maps for the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which locked in the profoundly damaging practice of redlining for generations to come.
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