Racial Segregation on The Example of The "Redlining"

Civil rights are the rights of American citizens to social and political freedom and equality. But at 1965 not all the American citizens had that right. The main event that started the entire riot was when a young guy was pooled over by the police at Watts area in California for reckless driving. That event brought more African American people together, and they got into disagreements and fights with police. In five days of riot black people were looting and damaging some of the stores, buildings, cars, and public places. Also, around 4,000 people got arrest and thousand got injured. The African American people were fighting for their civil rights, and they wanted equality. Before 1965, African American people were living at fear, and most of them were jobless, and they also had housing problems too. Unfortunately, some of them were living at slums without the essential elements for living. The housing issues go back to the 1930s when the government approved the redlining program, and it was one of the equality rights that African American people wanted to have.

At 1933, Congress established the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) by President Franklin Roosevelt’s ordered. Because of the Great Depression, public foreclosure became unstable, and the government had to control that crisis. Also, the terms to buy a property at that time were, that they had to get long term loans with low interest, and after a couple of years helped the federal agency to recover from that crisis. Unfortunately, that opportunity wasn’t for everybody, because HOLC made a map to prevent a safety for residents and called it “residential safety map.” One of the reasons for that kind of mapping was, to separate the African American people from the white people. One of the assistant professors of history in Virginia, LaDale Winling mentioned how the redlining map got approved. Also, he said: “But these maps show that the shape of the housing market was already determined, set in collaboration between federal officials and local leaders in real estate and banking.”

The HOLC choose four different colors for different areas. The “A” or green area was called “hot spots” which white people could get a good mortgage. The second one was “B” area in blue color and the mortgage wasn’t bad, but still good. The next one was yellow or “C” which was about to decline, and the last one was “D” or red in full decline. The lenders had to stay away from the red area. The decision was racial and effected in African American people’s life. The segregation and redlining had severe damage in neighborhoods demographically and financially. The redlining did not just effect on African American people’s life but also effected on Asian, southern European, Jews, and other immigrants live too. “Anyone who was not northern-European white was considered to be a detraction from the value of the area,” (Bruce Mitchell, a senior researcher at the NCRC). The white people could not accept other races to have any property or houses near their area.

Almost 10,000 African American people after World War II relocated to Los Angeles for military jobs. First, they needed a house to resettle then they could have the job. The housing problem sort of solved when the federal government intervened. Because black families got denied living in a white area. During that time Watts area’s population was mixed with white, black and Latinos families. Douglas Aircraft hired 44,000 workers, and they had to consider their housing as well. However, after the government got rejected with their Venice housing project from white families, then they moved African American families and the project to the Watts area. The African American community accused the government had enormous influence in the housing project, and that act counted as racial discrimination. In the 1960s, day after day Watts area got more isolated, and people started to face with more problems. In each city or neighborhood, the residences needed school, public transportation, stores, doctor’s office, etc. Unfortunately, after redlining the Watts area got more isolated, families were facing with their simple needs not being met. Therefore, around 1968 even with the Fair Housing Act the damaged on African American people’s life already done, and it was hard to get back to what it should have been in the first place.

One of the most critical events in American history was the Civil War and how slavery ended. The Civil War happened between 1861 to 1865 and after 250 years ended the slavery and freed the African American from slavery. During that time white people by using them as slave laborers at tobacco, cotton and rice production for their own profits. Also, slaves helped the economic system. The German philosopher Karl Marx in his “The Method” book wrote: ‘Without slavery, there would be no cotton, without cotton, there would be no modern industry. It is slavery which has given value to the colonies, it is the colonies which have created world trade, and world trade is the necessary condition for large-scale machine industry”. (Fourth Observation). The slavery eliminated in northern states around the 1770s, but not at the southern part. Most of the slave owners by making slaves dependent were trying to control and even restrict their lives. At some point, slavery ended, but for so many years African American people were fighting for their rights and equality.

The fight and path to have the Civil Rights for some of the African American, who got chosen as a leader wasn’t easy. The Civil War ended slavery, but not the racial discrimination. The U.S. Constitution in 1868, in 14th amendment, approved the African American’s equal right, and after that in 15th amendment accepted their voting right. However, not all white people were ready to take that change, and in different ways, they wanted to fight back. After redlining, white neighborhoods reject the idea to live next to black families. Even they didn’t want to share their community and wanted to isolate the African American people more. Each area or district needed school, health center, stores, and public transportation. Unfortunately, by isolating the black people in the Watts area accessing to their first needs was hard, and even they couldn’t go to the white areas to meet their basic human needs. In somehow white people were trying to keep black people in the lowest level in the society. All those needs were the reason that the riots started, and they demanded equality. The people only wanted their basic needs to be meet like other citizens in the United States of America.

After the riot, the California Real Estate Association passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act. The Act drafted by the first African American legislature, William Byron Rumford at 1967. The landlords had to follow the Rumford Act, by accepting the fact they couldn’t deny renting their houses to all kinds of people, and different races even African American people. Unfortunately, 50 years has been passed, but still, in some areas or cities, African American people get that rejection from white landlords. The Latino population had grown every year, and they have pushed the African American people from the Watts area, but still, that neighborhood counts as an unfortunate part of the Los Angeles. The Watts housing and project almost happened a couple of decades ago, and the services and basic needs for living in that area are still not met in full extent.

In General, African American people suffered from slavery to have their basic rights. So many black people lost their lives or got arrested because they believe in freedom. After the Civil War and ending the slavery over the years African American got their rights for equality and voting by fighting for it over decades. The federal government by redlining made a huge gap between whites and black people. Still today in some cities or areas, black people still get different treatment and face racial discrimination. The Watts riot was a way to end all the difference even though some African American people were against the violence.

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