Civil Rights
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
q2K BHP
Black History Portal
THE BHP WIRE —
HIDDEN TRUTHS
What's New!
Explore the people, places, events, achievements, struggles and stories that shaped our journey.
Movements, leaders, victories and the continuing fight for equality.
Innovation, patents, science, technology and world-changing contributions.
Pioneers, champions, Negro Leagues, records, activism and excellence.
Meet the people whose lives, choices and achievements shaped the journey.
Black towns, communities, institutions and places where history happened.
Moments that changed communities, movements, institutions and the nation.
Wilmington, North Carolina once had a thriving Black middle class and an elected interracial government. In 1898 white supremacists used violence to overthrow that government, kill Black residents and drive many others from the city.
MORE →Reflects the personal views, recollections, and perspective of the author, Mike Davis.
This is a personal recollection on the Move fire on May 13, 1985
 | |
| Long title | AN ACT To encourage improvement in housing standards and conditions, to provide a system of mutual mortgage insurance, and for other purposes |
|---|---|
| Enacted by | the 73rd United States Congress |
| Citations | |
| Public law | Pub. L. 73–479 |
| Statutes at Large | 48 Stat. 1246 |
| Legislative history | |
| |
The National Housing Act of 1934, H.R. 9620, Pub. L. 73–479, 48 Stat. 1246, enacted June 27, 1934, also called the Better Housing Program,[1] was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable.[2] It created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA)[3] and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC).[4]
The Act was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes during the Great Depression. With this, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used this act to fulfill his goal towards a government program funded by private investments, avoiding the reliance on taxpayer funds.[5] The passing of the bill alleviated unemployment by making credit more accessible through banks and lending organizations.[6] Both the FHA and the FSLIC became the main federal agencies[6] that worked to create the backbone of the mortgage and home building industries, until the 1980s.[7] The FHA's guarantee against losses for mortgage lenders allowed for a system of regular monthly mortgage payments.[6] The FHA mortgage insurance program became an effective strategy for increasing investment in the mortgage market and still continues to be.[5]
According to Fishback et al. (2024), the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC), which was created in 1933, are associated with redlining and discrimination.[8] They were both created by the New Deal legislation enacted by President Roosevelt to make housing more affordable. However, scholars state they "reinforced racial discrimination" and institutionalized racial residential segregation, through the exclusion of low-income neighborhoods, and the shifted focus on higher valued properties in predominantly White areas.[8][9] Scholars note many private lenders used the HOLC maps, placing residents in low rated areas at major disadvantages.[8] The FHA evaluated neighborhoods with an assessment of neighborhood quality, stability, and future property value, which Fishback et al. (2024) claims were shaped by racial perceptions.[8]
Based on several reports, real estate documents, and housing report analysis, Kevin Fox Gotham (2000) states racialization played a key role in the segregated system and state policy, the FHA and the housing industries in the United States produced.[10] It was greatly fueled by discriminatory ideology during the Great Depression resulting in the involvement of real estate and banking policy organizations. Gotham says "each of these groups accepted the notion that racial housing segregation was essential if residential districts were to retain their stability and desirability."[10]
These policies had disparate impacts on Americans along segregated lines :
Author Richard Rothstein says the housing programs begun under the New Deal were tantamount to a "state-sponsored system of segregation."
The government's efforts were "primarily designed to provide housing to white, middle-class, lower-middle-class families," he says. African-Americans and other people of color were left out of the new suburban communities — and pushed instead into urban housing projects.[11][12]
The Housing Act of 1937 built on this legislation. Scholars note that prior to the New Deal and the National Housing Act of 1934 there were already racial challenges when it came to housing. These practices involved preventing Black people and other people of color from moving into predominantly White neighborhoods.[8] The National Housing Act of 1934 impacted the racialization of housing and had a role in the civil rights disparities through the legislation it created.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Source: Wikipedia. Article content is retrieved live through the MediaWiki API.
The National Housing Act of 1934, H.R. 9620, Pub. L. 73–479, 48 Stat. 1246, enacted June 27, 1934, also called the Better Housing Program, was part of the New Deal passed during the Great Depression in order to make housing and home mortgages more affordable. It created the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation (FSLIC). The Act was designed to stop the tide of bank foreclosures on family homes during the Great Depression. With this, President Franklin D. Roosevelt used this act to fulfill his goal towards a government program funded by private investments, avoiding the reliance on taxpayer funds. The passing of the bill alleviated unemployment by making credit more accessible through banks and lending organizations. Both the FHA and the FSLIC became the main federal agencies that worked to create the backbone of the mortgage and home building industries, until the 1980s. The FHA's guarantee against losses for mortgage lenders allowed for a system of regular monthly mortgage payments. The FHA mortgage insurance program became an effective strategy for increasing investment in the mortgage market and still continues to be. (See Savings and loan crisis and Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 that ended the FSLIC, whose activities were moved to the FDIC.)
The Housing Act of 1937 (Pub. L. 75–412, 50 Stat. 888, enacted September 1, 1937), formally the "United States Housing Act of 1937" and sometimes called the Wagner–Steagall Act, provided for subsidies to be paid from the United States federal government to local public housing agencies (LHAs) to improve living conditions for low-income families. The act created the United States Housing Authority within the U.S. Department of the Interior. The act builds on the National Housing Act of 1934, which created the Federal Housing Administration. Both the 1934 Act and the 1937 Act were influenced by American housing reformers of the period, with Catherine Bauer Wurster chief among them. Bauer drafted much of this legislation and served as a Director in the United States Housing Authority, the agency created by the 1937 Act to control the payment of subsidies, for two years. The sponsoring legislators were Representative Henry B. Steagall, Democrat of Alabama, and Senator Robert F. Wagner, Democrat of New York. Although initially controversial, it gained acceptance and provisions of the Act have remained, but in amended form.
The Housing Act of 1954, Pub. L. 83–560, 68 Stat. 590, enacted August 2, 1954, passed during the Dwight D. Eisenhower Administration, comprised a series of amendments to the National Housing Act of 1934, reorienting federal intervention in urban centers away from the slum-clearance and public-housing mandate of the Housing Act of 1949 toward a broader strategy of urban renewal, especially preferring private-sector-led redevelopment. The act reshaped the built environment of hundreds of American cities between the mid-1950s and the 1970s. The Housing Act of 1954 created the modern urban renewal apparatus, expanded Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance authority, strengthened planning departments nationwide, and altered public housing policy by relaxing several politically controversial requirements. Its programs were administered by the Housing and Home Finance Agency (HHFA), the predecessor to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
National Housing Act may refer to: National Housing Act (Canada) of 1938, the first significant federal housing legislation adopted in Canada National Housing Act of 1934, the first significant federal housing legislation enacted in the United States Housing Act of 1937, also known as the Wagner-Steagall Act, which subsidized public housing in the United States Housing Act of 1949, a major post-World War II national housing policy enacted in the United States Housing Amendments of 1955 Act, 1955 amendments to the National Housing Act, see 84th United States Congress Housing and Urban Development Act of 1965, part of President Lyndon B. Johnson's "Great Society" program, which provided a national system of rent subsidies in the United States Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, a United States law which created Ginnie Mae out of Fannie Mae
Before the 1921 destruction of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, Black residents had created a remarkable center of business and community life. The district included stores, professional offices, entertainment venues and homes owned by Black citizens. Understanding Greenwood means learning what was built—not only what was burned.
MORE →The Greenwood District.