In the exclusive enclaves of north Fresno, life expectancy is 90 years. The boundaries are put in place and it automates itself from there.” “It creates a monster of social inequality that falls along racial lines, then it recreates itself. “Once you have a group of people segregated into a place you can take resources from that place,” said Amber Crowell, a Fresno State sociologist. Eighty years after Helming published his report, the gulf between white, black, and brown residents remains embedded in the city’s geography. But in the majority-minority city of half a million, those riches are not equally divided. Helming’s report, one of more than 200 from cities across the country, reinforced residential segregation through a practice that came to be known as “redlining.”įresno is now the largest city in California’s Central Valley, the lifeblood of California, whose fertile fields feed the country. He noted that in more affluent neighborhoods, like Fig Garden, “residence lots were sold under careful deed restrictions as to race.” If a neighborhood didn’t have these restrictions, Helming noted they were at risk of an “infiltration of a lower grade population.” These deed restrictions, known as racially restrictive covenants, were another mechanism that prevented people of color from buying homes in white neighborhoods. Fresno’s west side was red, and in his report, Helming noted the “almost exclusive concentration of colored races” present there. Neighborhoods with large minority populations were shaded red, denied mortgages, and labeled undesirable. White neighborhoods were shaded green, and white buyers in these areas were generally approved for loans. (Courtesy of T-RACES, University of Maryland) The areas shaded red were home to an "undesirable" population.
The Home Owners' Loan Corporation used this redlining map to preserve segregation in Fresno.
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