During a period in the 1950s and 60s, middle-class white families fled from neighborhoods of growing diversity as the African-American population began to transition into higher income brackets. This movement, known as white flight, marks an important part in the history of Chicago’s neighborhoods. It goes hand-in-hand with Chicago’s redlining past .
Redlining, is a form of racial discrimination in which banks marked neighborhoods by grouping racially homongenous zones and then categorized the neighborhoods by how risky it would be to give someone from that neighborhood a loan or mortgage.
These practices continue disinfranchise the African-American communities within Chicago today. Now, it seems as though Chicago is becoming the center of a new kind of discrimination that greatly effects all of us whilst stay-at-home orders are underway in Illinois.
According to a new article from BlockClubChicago, 1 in 5 Chicago students lack broadband access and 4 neighborhoods, in particular, are greatly disadvantaged. These neighborhoods, Englewood, West Englewood, Auburn-Gresham and North Lawndale, are all neighborhoods that have been victims of white flight and redlining.
Continue reading Blog #1: Don’t let COVID-19 disadvantage inner-city youth!