Federal and state housing policies in the mid-20th century restricted financial resources to African Americans.

In the wake of the Great Depression, the government made mortgages available to homeowners to stave off a foreclosure crisis and published color-coded maps identifying the loan worthiness of individual neighborhoods across the U.S. Those areas considered high-risk were shaded in red – referred to as redlining – disproportionately impacting communities of color and impeding Black residents from securing mortgage loans. Decades later, another historically discriminatory movement followed: urban renewal.

Historian Donna Rae Pearson makes her second appearance at the Library, this time examining how these two programs propagated residential segregation and changed communities across the nation. She talks about the lingering negative impact of redlining and urban renewal on today’s communities.

Pearson is curator at the Kansas State Historical Society. Through her consultation firm Kitchen Table History, she researches, develops, and presents historical scholarship on the Black experience in Kansas.