Whites-Only Suburbs: How the New Deal Shut Out Black Homebuyers

November 3, 2022
Has lesson plan

Race-based federal lending rules from New Deal programs in the 1930s kept Black families locked out of suburban neighborhoods, a policy that continues to slow their economic mobility.

The New Deal programs launched between 1932 and the end of World War II transformed society. But when it came to support for home ownership, Black Americans reaped far fewer benefits than white Americans. Federal Housing Administration rules from that era recommended that the way to preserve the value of newly constructed subdivisions was to keep Black homebuyers from living there, a policy that continues to slow Black families’ ability to build wealth.

This video is released in partnership with TIME magazine.

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For teachers
  • Producer/Narrator : Erik German
  • Editor: Heru Muharrar
  • Associate Producer: Irem Ozturan
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For Educators

Subjects
U.S. History
Topics
Domestic Policy U.S. Presidents World War II
Introduction

This 10-minute video examines how race-based federal lending rules from New Deal programs in the 1930s kept Black families locked out of suburban neighborhoods, a policy that continues to slow their economic mobility.

Prior to this lesson, students would have already covered the causes of the Civil War rooted in the South’s dependence on slavery, the failure of the U.S. government to fully support the integration of newly freed Black people as citizens and the establishment of racial segregation laws at state levels after the Plessy v. Ferguson U.S. Supreme Court decision supported the legal doctrine of “separate but equal.” Additionally, the teacher might have already covered the topics of the early 1900s, including America’s entry into World War II and the impact of the Great Depression on all of American society.

Lesson Plan 1: Jim Crow America - Racial Discrimination Beyond the South
Jim Crow America - Racial Discrimination Beyond the South
Jim Crow America - Racial Discrimination Beyond the South
Racial Discrimination Beyond the South
Overview
▼

Students will learn how race-based federal lending rules from New Deal programs in the 1930s kept Black families locked out of suburban neighborhoods, a policy that continues to slow their economic mobility.

Objectives
▼

Students will:

  • Be able to identify the forms of racial discrimination outside the Southern United States – including housing segregation during the Great Depression and inequitable implementation of the G.I. Bill following World War II – to understand the societal problems the civil rights movements of the 1950s and 1960s were trying to overcome.
Essential questions
▼

How were Black people affected by racial discrimination outside the South prior to the Black Civil Rights Movement?

Additional resources
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Standards
▼
  • National Council for the Social Studies C3 Framework
    • D2.Civ.14.9-12.Analyze historical, contemporary, and emerging means of changing societies, promoting the common good, and protecting rights.
    • D2.Civ.5.9-12.Evaluate citizens’ and institutions’ effectiveness in addressing social and political problems at the local, state, tribal, national, and/or international level.
    • D2.Civ.8.9-12.Evaluate social and political systems in different contexts, times, and places, that promote civic virtues and enact democratic principles.
    • D2.His.1.9-12.Evaluate how historical events and developments were shaped by unique circumstances of time and place as well as broader historical contexts.
    • D2.His.16.9-12.Integrate evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations into a reasoned argument about the past.
    • D2.His.2.9-12.Analyze change and continuity in historical eras.
  • AP U.S. History
    • Topic 7.10:

      Explain how the Great Depression and the New Deal impacted American political, social, and economic life over time.

      • KC-7.1.III.A: Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal attempted to end the Great Depression by using government power to provide relief to the poor, stimulate recovery, and reform the American economy.
      • KC-7.1.III.C: Although the New Deal did not end the Depression, it left a legacy of reforms and regulatory agencies and fostered a long-term political realignment in which many ethnic groups, African Americans, and working class communities identified with the Democratic Party.
    • Topic 7.13:

      Explain the causes and effects of the victory of the United States and its allies over the Axis powers.

      KC-7.3.III.C.ii: Military service provided opportunities for women and minorities to improve their socioeconomic positions for the war’s duration, while also leading to debates over racial segregation.

  • AP Human Geography
    • Unit 6: Cities & Urban Land-Use