Redlining

Siterunner/SJS: Many years ago, in 1971, I helped start up a public interest group in Los Angeles that took on the challenge of discriminatory bank lending. The group was called the 'Center for New Corporate Priorities' and the anti-redlining campaign we put together was one of the first in the US. It became a successful campaign with the California legislature taking our maps of Los Angeles neighborhoods, we compared bank real estate lending in East LA and South LA with per capital lending statistics in Beverly Hills and West LA.

This data was not easy to obtain, it was before computers were widely available and computer databases were proprietary and carefully controlled and limited from public view. But the Center went thru the public-accessible city-county maps and regulated banking data and then we painstakingly compiled neighborhood-by-neighborhood maps comparing banking practices.

We 'proved' conclusively with data and statistics the prevailing discriminatory lending practices, then took these maps, graphics, and charted data to Representatives in the state's capitol, Sacramento, who then held hearings.

The hearings led to follow-on investigations and more convincing mapping and evidence which resulted in legislation and the first era of anti-redlining legislation-banking regulation, an extension of the Fair Housing Act and federal/state/local models for action across the country.

Job done? We accomplished a small step. Unfortunately the damage continues. Much remains to be accomplished by generational action, legal activists, social warriors, citizens of good will and visionary leaders.