Linking U.S. government-sponsored redlining to early-stage white flight, 1940–1950

Abstract

ABSTRACT White flight, the rapid departure of white residents from urban neighborhoods, has had a considerable impact on the racial/ethnic composition of cities. While there is reason to suspect that government-supported policies for managing refinanced mortgages may predict this flight, this has not been sufficiently researched. This study evaluates whether maps from the New Deal era Home Owner’s Loan Corporation (HOLC) predict white flight. We draw upon 1940 and 1950 data available from the National Historic GIS and Integrated Public Use Microdata Series as well as HOLC maps digitized through the Mapping Inequality project. Focusing on the 1940s allows us to directly measure the HOLC’s association with the early stages of white flight. We find that the maps predict white flight even when considering other neighborhood characteristics like percent Black. These results demonstrate the early role that federally enshrined local housing policies had on long-term racial change in cities.