Jackie Robinson had just led the Dodgers in the World Series, but still he struggled to buy a home:
“At first we were told the house we were interested in had been sold just before we inquired, or we would be invited to make an offer, a sort of a sealed bid, and then we’d be told that offers higher than ours had been turned down. Then we tried buying houses on the spot for whatever price was asked. They handled this by telling us the house had been taken off the market. Once we met a broker who told us he would like to help us find a home, but his clients were against selling to Negroes. Whether or not we got a story with the refusal, the results were always the same.”
Source: https://www.tchabitat.org/blog/race-and-housing-series-the-gi-bill
Housing covenants: a big part of the reason for the wealth gap.
Did you know? In Minneapolis:
- A typical black household earns 44% of a typical white household?
- A history of housing covenants locked many blacks out of housing?
- Black home ownership rates are some of the lowest in the nation?
- Blacks are 19% of the population, but in 2018, they made up 47% of all traffic stops for equipment infractions?
- At every education level, black wealth lags.
For more information: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/04/economic-divide-black-households/
Further Reading suggestions:
- So You Want to Talk About Race by Iljeoma Oluo
- How to be an Anti Racist by Ibram S. Kendi
- Waking up White by Debby Irving
- The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson