The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond hosts a large collection of "security maps" and notes created between 1935 and 1940 by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), born out of...

The Digital Scholarship Lab at the University of Richmond hosts a large collection of "security maps" and notes created between 1935 and 1940 by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC), born out of the Homeowners Loan Act of 1933, which itself sprung out of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, a large collection of government actions (federal programs, public works projects, financial reforms and regulations) designed to guide the United States out of the Great Depression, which, of course, was caused by half a dozen factors, including "Black Tuesday", the Stock Market Crash of 1929.
Like many government interventions, the results of HOLC's efforts are mixed at best. It changed the way houses are financed by introducing the 15-year loan, which lead to the now typical 30-year loan.
For this dropbox, we will examine HOLC's contribution to maintaining and increasing racial segregation in cities through the process of "redlining."
1. Go to theDigital Scholarship Lab(Links to an external site.)and click on the link titled "Featured Project: Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America."2. Read theIntroduction(Links to an external site.)in its entirety.3. In the search by city or state window, enter Los Angeles and press Enter.
4. This will bring you to a zoomable map of Los Angeles.
5. Explore this map by zooming in and out and clicking on any of the colored blocks.
6. By clicking on the blocks, notes about that area are made available to you on the left side of the screen.
7. Click on the thumbnail of these notes to read the area's descriptions.
8.Explore at least 4 areas, making sure tochoose at least one location for each color. That is, choose one location that is coded green for "Best", blue or purple for "Still Desirable", yellow for "Definitely Declining", and red for "Hazardous." Read the "Description and Characteristics of Area" for each neighborhood.
9. Find at least one area whose description includes the phrase "protected from racial hazards."

II. REPORT WHAT YOU FOUND

In a text document, report what you found.
1. You've explored at least 1 area for each of the 4 color codes.Foreachof these, do the following:a. State the location number and grade/color-code.
b. What were some of the statistics and notes for that location that you found interestingand why?
c. Directly quote one or two sentences from the "Description and Characteristics of Area" section for that location.
2.In additionto the other red area that you explored, find the Watts neighborhood. Watts's location code is D61, which is a near the center of the city and is comprised of 4 shapes.For Watts, what were some of the statistics and notes for this location that you found interestingand why?3. Look at a few more areas with different ratings in order todiscover patterns to the grading.a. What were some of the similarities among areas rated Green?b. What were some of the similarities among areas rated Yellow?c. What were some of the similarities among areas rated Red?
4. What were some terms, phrases, or patterns to the grading that were interesting to you and why? Choose two and write these down, along withwhyyou found these interesting, in your text document.
5. What do you think the phrase "protected from racial hazards" mean? You may be able to figure this out just by reading the terms; however, it would be easier to figure out the meaning of the phrase if you found it (or something similar) in the maps' location notes. Or you can always do an internet search on the term!
6. Why do you think "single family homes" would more likely to be located in Green or Purple areas?
As you look through the archive, it's important to note that HOLC was not the first agency to rate neighborhoods. It did, however, formalize and nationalize the practice. And thus this rating system became an official part of our national government.