ican-Americans were close to central business districts.The proliferation of black migrants from the South becamea matter of concern to the downtown business interests, as their presence and proximity were perceived as a threat.public housing and urban renewal policies, often disguisedas humanitarian efforts by political offices, were devised andimplemented to ameliorate social ills. The only problem addressed, however, was the black presence. Inherent in the public housing policies was the intent and desire to restrainor redirect black residential patterns to reflect the racist agendaof containing blacks in restricted sections of cities (McGrew 5).The federal government also became a principal agent in supporting the development of residential segregation by refusing to allow minorities access to subsidized housing in white areas and by requiring racially restrictive covenants in suburban developments as a condition for receiving Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance (McGrew 4). During this period, the FHA financed approximately three out of every five homes purchased in the United States. However, less than two percent of FHA loans were made to non-white homebuyers. In providing mortgage insurance for properties, the FHA required properties to meet certain criteria. One primary criterion was the racial composition of a neighborhood. FHA manuals referred to the infiltration of inharmonious racial or nationality groups as adverse to neighborhood stability and advised appraisers to lower the rating of properties in mixed neighborhoods, often to the point of rejection (McGrew 4). Such federally financed segregative practices also became a leading model for private mortgage lenders to enforce segregation. The FHA refused mortgage insurance to minorities in urban neighborhoods, consequently denying African-Americans mortgages for housing available to them in inner-city neighborhoods. Redlining, the discriminatory...
