I spotted this map in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Museum, which had a special exhibition on FDR and Black African Americans.
Redlining Map of Poughkeepsie, New York and its Suburbs, March 1938
This redlining map of Poughkeepsie was among the hundreds of “Residential Security Maps” of urban areas created by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation.
The maps indicated mortgage lending risk by neighborhood type, including residential, commercial, and industrial areas. Residential districts were marked with different colors to indicate the level of risk in mortgage lending. Streets and neighborhoods that included minority (especially African American) and immigrant populations were often marked in RED as “Fourth Grade” or “Hazardous”— the riskiest category for federally insured homeowner loans. For example, in the BLUE area marked B3 on this map there is a small sliver of RED along Glenwood Avenue. Notes that accompany the map explain why: “Glenwood Avenue, which is shown in red, was an old Negro settlement before this area was built up.” Similarly, in the BLUE area marked B2 Pershing Avenue appears in RED. The mapmaker’s notes indicate: “Pershing Avenue (marked in red) has a number of negro families. Houses on this street are very poor and of little value.”
Not a lot seems to have changed!
