Hiding In Plain Sight Summary

Question 1:

According to the video “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Walls That Divide Us”, in 1934 when the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was founded, in their policy manual, they stated that neighborhoods were to remain homogenous, meaning white neighborhoods stayed white and black ones stayed black. So in an effort to ensure this, the FHA literally took a red marker and outlined areas where they are willing to insure home mortgages. This created the term redlining and this system of segregation made a situation where according to the video “Hiding in Plain Sight: The Walls That Divide Us” lenders were encouraged to not lend money for homes in black neighborhoods or in white and black neighborhoods; because remember, the policy of the FHA in 1934 was to have homogenous neighborhoods. Fortunately, the Fair Housing Act of 1968 ended this practice by the FHA and home loan lenders
During this time period, segregation was legalized by the U.S. Government to the point where even the U.S. Supreme Court held that “separate but equal” was legal. Obviously when the practice of redlining is examined closely it is obvious this is anything but equal. Local communities also instituted Jim Crowe laws which were designed to further separate the races. In all honesty, no it does not surprise me at all that there were federal laws and policies that restricted blacks from purchasing homes. I think the reason this situation was more sever in Detroit than the Deep South is that this was occurring in a place where this type of behavior wasn’t really expected. It wasn’t anything shocking for this sort of segregation to occur in the South, but this was happening in the North. The same North that just 70 years earlier had fought against the South in the Civil War to not only save the union but to eventually end slavery, and make sure that all men are created equal. Redlining did not make all men