Association of Historic Redlining and Present-Day Health in Baltimore

 

"Association of historic redlining and present-day health in Baltimore," by Huang SJ, & Sehgal NJ (2022).  PLoS ONE 17(1): e0261028. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261028.

In the 1930s, the government-sponsored agency Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) - created as part of the New Deal in 1933 - categorized neighborhoods by investment grade along racially discriminatory lines, a process known as redlining. Although other authors have found associations between HOLC categories and current impacts on racial segregation, analysis of current health impacts rarely use these maps.

A study released in 2018 found that 74% of neighborhoods that HOLC graded as high-risk or "hazardous" are low-to-moderate income neighborhoods today, while 64% of the neighborhoods graded "hazardous" are minority neighborhoods today. "It's as if some of these places have been trapped in the past, locking neighborhoods into concentrated poverty," said Jason Richardson, director of research at the National Community Reinvestment Corporation (NCRC), a consumer advocacy group.

Fifty-four present-day planning board-defined community statistical areas are assigned historical HOLC categories by area predominance. Categories are red (“hazardous”), yellow (”definitely declining”) with blue/green (“still desirable”/”best”) as the reference category. Community statistical area life expectancy is regressed against HOLC category, controlling for median household income and proportion of African American residents.

Red categorization is associated with 4.01 year reduction (95% CI: 1.47, 6.55) and yellow categorization is associated with 5.36 year reduction (95% CI: 3.02, 7.69) in community statistical area life expectancy at baseline. When controlling for median household income and proportion of African American residents, red is associated with 5.23 year reduction (95% CI: 3.49, 6.98) and yellow with 4.93 year reduction (95% CI: 3.22, 6.23). 

The primary policy implication is that discriminatory public or social policy - whether or not such a policy is intentionally discriminatory - in a realm such as housing can potentially have long-lasting, disparate, and large impacts on health. Additionally, contemporary African American activists and organizations in the 1930s presciently recognized the discriminatory impacts of how HOLC made its policy decisions: members of marginalized and/or impacted communities should have control over every major policy-making process.

Since many of these issues are structural and historical, health interventions that do not focus on disparate health outcomes risk being “weighed down” by structural problems that predispose a population to worse health. If we take health equity and disparities research seriously, we should be examining the possibility of interventions that attempt to tackle some of these structural factors, including the possibility of reparations. What Link and Phelan propose as “fundamental causes” of health disparities - such as a lack of flexible resources of money, knowledge, social connections, and political power - may have even more fundamental causes rooted in power hierarchies such as racial, class, and gender subordination.

Results add support that historical redlining is associated with health today. Even time-limited urban changes can have long-lasting cumulative effects. Michaels and Rauch found that the differential collapse of Western Roman urbanization in Britain and France in the 6th century CE differentially impacted the spatial efficiency of urbanization even 1500 years later in the 21st century. Similarly, evidence supports that redlining still has cumulative impacts on various social factors today. Aaronson et al. found that living in close proximity on two sides of differently graded borders - as represented in the 1930s HOLC security maps - is strongly associated nation-wide with increased residential racial segregation from the 1930s to today. The effect on residential racial segregation was particularly strong from 1930-1970 and the effect size began to decrease after 1970. Aaronson et al. provide additional support that maps were likely drawn with race in mind: only areas marked category D had a primarily Black population in the 1930s. In addition to increased segregation, Aaronson et al. found support for reductions in home ownership, house values, and credit scores throughout the 20th century that are maintained even today nearly a century later. They also found evidence of “yellow-lining”: areas marked as category C also had disparate current outcomes when compared to higher rated areas. Using a different methodology, Appel & Nickerson found that redlined neighborhoods had lower home prices in 1990 compared to surrounding areas, and that these discriminatory effects remained even after nearly 60 years. The presence of these discriminatory effects can be compounded across time: Massey et al. found that Black residents of redlined neighborhoods face greater barriers to residential mobility than white residents that negatively impacts Black residents’ social and economic well-being.

Read the full-text report.

U.S. Justice Department Accuses Wikipedia of Antisemitic Bias, Threatens Nonprofit Legal Status

 

The U.S. Justice Department accused the Wikimedia Foundation of being influenced by “foreign actors” seeking “to manipulate information and spread propaganda to the American public.” The Wikimedia Foundation, based in St. Petersburg, Florida, is a nonprofit organization that supports the widely used online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Wiki-affiliated projects. The Trump administration has warned that the organization’s nonprofit status could be at risk due to its alleged conduct.

Last week, Ed Martin, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, accused Wikimedia in an official letter of “subverting the interests of American taxpayers.” Martin warned that this “masked propaganda” is incompatible with Wikimedia’s official education mission profile. The senior attorney assessed that the organization’s current board is “composed primarily of foreign nationals,” which he believes threatens the interests of American taxpayers. Martin further argued that Wikimedia is involved in “a series of activities” that potentially violate U.S. nonprofit legislation. Conservative pundits have accused Wikimedia of embracing liberal and left-wing bias. In a June 2024 report, the conservative-leaning Manhattan Institute reported it had identified “suggestive evidence” of “slight to moderate” left-leaning bias in Wikimedia’s content. 

Wikimedia responded by claiming that its Wikipedia platform’s over 65 million articles are designed “to inform, not persuade.” “Our vision is a world where every person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge,” Wikimedia claimed in its official statement. 

However, critics dispute Wikimedia’s official claim of neutrality. In March, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a Jewish-American watchdog that combats antisemitism, accused 30 Wikipedia editors of cooperating to promote anti-Israel online content. The ADL report argued that anti-Israel Wikipedia editors “coordinate to change pages related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, downplaying Palestinian antisemitism, violence, and calls to destroy Israel while promoting criticism of Israel.”

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that Wikipedia’s biased content undermines the online platform’s credibility. “Most readers assume Wikipedia is a reliable online encyclopedia, but in reality, it has become a biased platform manipulated by agenda-driven editors on many topics,” Greenblatt stated. 

Wikipedia’s Arabic language content, in particular, has escalated its propaganda against the Jewish state since the Hamas October 7th massacre in 2023. The Arabic language Wikipedia has falsely accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza as the Jewish state defends itself against Hamas terrorists who do not believe in Israel's right to exist. Arabic Wikipedia has denied the many well-documented cases of Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women, claiming that it is an “Israeli propaganda lie.” “Each phrase… ‘genocide in Gaza,’ ‘killing civilians,’ ‘targeting hospitals and schools,’ and ‘mislead and double standards,’ leads to its own Arabic-language article," the American magazine National Review pointed out in March 2024. 

“There is not even a pretense of objectivity there. It is pure incitement against Israel aimed at the Arabic-speaking audience,” the Jewish blogger Elder of Ziyon stated regarding Arab Wikipedia’s banner. 

Read the April 29, 2025 All Israel News article.

Read the April 25,2025 Washington Post article.

Read the March 18, 2025 ADL article.

(Image by freepik.com.)

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month!

 

In the month of May, the Mayor of Baltimore's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA) would like dedicate time and space to recognize Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month! Join us in celebrating the vibrant traditions of the many AAPI communities that add to the charm and diversity of Baltimore City. Rather than simple "model minorities," AAPI individuals represent all walks of life and trace their roots back to cultures spanning more than fifty different countries that are home to thousands of languages.

MIMA has a great listing of the various events, exhibitions, festivals, and feasts occurring during the month in Baltimore in their May 2025 MIMA Monthly Update newsletter. Click on this link for more details on events around town and join in the festivities!

Asian-Pacific American Heritage (AAPI) Month is a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. The month of May was chosen to commemorate the first Japanese immigration to America on May 7, 1843, and the Chinese migrant workers who completed the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The theme for the 2025 AAPI Heritage Month is “A Legacy of Leadership and Resilience.”

Originally beginning as the first 10 days of May in 1978, it was expanded to a full month and signed into law in 1992. That same year at the First Invitational Congress of Minority Nurse Leaders in Washington D.C., 15 AAPI nurses formed the Asian American Pacific Islander Nurses Association (AAPINA). 

The Office of Strategic Engagement and Impact encourages the UMSON community to join us in celebrating and honoring the rich heritage and contributions of the Asian American Pacific Islander community throughout the month of May and beyond.

In UniSON: together we commit, together we act.

On a particularly negative note, on January 20, 2025, the president issued Executive Order 14148, titled "Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders", which eliminated U.S. federal recognition of AANHPI Heritage Month and closed the White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders.

Read the May 2, 2025 University of Maryland, Baltimore The Elm article.

(Image courtesy of the New York City Department of Education.)

MCCR Secures Court Victory in Source of Income Discrimination Case to Improve Housing Justice in Maryland

 

May 2, 2025 MCCR SECURES COURT VICTORY IN SOURCE OF INCOME DISCRIMINATION CASE Commission Reaffirms Commitment to Accountability and Housing Equity Across Maryland BALTIMORE, MD – The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights (MCCR) has secured a significant legal victory in the fight against housing discrimination with the final order issued on April 23, 2025, by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County in State of Maryland Commission on Civil Rights and Tonya Wood v. Cheryl Sawyers (Trustee) and Rachel Wilson. The court found the defendants liable for violating Maryland's fair housing law on the basis of source of income, and has ordered both monetary penalties and broad injunctive relief to prevent future violations. General Counsel Glendora C. Hughes said that the Office of the General Counsel brought this case after the defendants unlawfully discriminated against Ms. Tonya Wood by refusing her housing based solely on the source of her income. The court ordered the defendants to pay $6,000 in damages to Ms. Wood and $4,000 in civil penalties, in addition to requiring: Mandatory fair housing training with specific focus on source of income discrimination The inclusion of non-discrimination statements in all future rental advertisements Ongoing reporting and compliance obligations for three years A permanent injunction against discriminatory housing practices The Assistant General Counsel Terrence J. Artis, who represented the Commission before the court, offered in reflection, "I am very pleased the Commission was able to vindicate the public interest in this case. The court made it clear this landlord or her agent is permanently prohibited from making or publishing any advertisement that indicates any preference, limitation or discrimination based on source of income including section 8, and they must attend fair housing anti-discrimination training. The Commission was successful in sending a strong message to housing providers that source of income discrimination in housing will not be condoned." The victim and co-plaintiff in this case, Ms. Tonya Wood, stated in response to the decision, "This is a critical win for housing justice. Discrimination against Section 8 voucher holders disproportionately affects people of color, single mothers, seniors, and people with disabilities. The court's decision reaffirms that everyone deserves a fair chance at safe and stable housing." Ms. Wood was represented by attorney Omar V. Melehy who worked tirelessly with Assistant General Counsel to secure this victory for fair housing. "This ruling is not just a legal victory – it is a moral one," said Cleveland L. Horton II, Executive Director of MCCR. "When housing providers attempt to lock doors based on how someone pays, they are denying far more than shelter – they are denying dignity, equity, and opportunity. This case sends a clear message: there will be accountability in Maryland for those who discriminate." Why This Matters While Maryland law clearly prohibits discrimination based on lawful source of income, including housing vouchers, disability income, and other legal benefits, such bias remains pervasive and often goes unchecked. MCCR has long warned that SOI discrimination disproportionately harms communities of color, women, people with disabilities, and low-income families, making it one of the most dangerous and subtle threats to housing justice in our time. "Source of income discrimination is modern-day redlining," said Horton. "It is dressed in polite excuses but fueled by the same old prejudices. As housing costs rise and economic inequality deepens, ensuring fair access to housing is not only a legal obligation – it is a moral and civic imperative." A Call to Action MCCR calls on landlords, property managers, REALTORS®, and housing professionals across Maryland to take this ruling as a turning point. The law will be enforced. Excuses will not be tolerated. But more than compliance, MCCR urges the housing industry to be leaders in justice – to not simply avoid discrimination, but to actively dismantle barriers that keep families out of stable housing. "We must build a culture where equity is the standard, not the exception," said Horton. "Accountability is how we honor the law. But intention is how we change lives." Victim of Discrimination? Training & Partnerships HOME      ABOUT MCCR      SERVICES      PUBLICATIONS      EVENTS      PRESS      CONTACT US

Read the May 2, 2025 MCCR press release.

Read tMCCR's 2024 Annual Report.

Happy Cinco de Mayo 2025!

 

Fighting Discrimination Against Mothers of Children with Disabilities

 

"Discrimination that Requires a Remedy: The Case of Mothers of Children with Disabilities," by Ewa Rejman (2025).  Mercer Law Review: Vol. 76: No. 2, Article 4. https://digitalcommons.law.mercer.edu/jour_mlr/vol76/iss2/4.

International human rights law devotes particular attention to the protection of vulnerable groups owing to their special needs and distinctive challenges which should be adequately considered. Building upon this premise and stressing the importance of gender approach, the Article describes particular vulnerabilities that mothers of children with disabilities face and explains how addressing them remains contingent upon safeguarding, in particular, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, the right to social security, the right to an adequate standard of living and the right to family life. Through the analysis of the responsibility for the omission in international law, as well as binding positive obligations in the area of economic, social and cultural rights, it identifies states’ duty to remedy discrimination that mothers of children with disabilities experience.

To this end, the article argues that these mothers suffer from associative discrimination on the basis of disability and indirect discrimination on the basis of sex. It relies on the definition of discrimination provided by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, according to which the discriminatory effect, even in the absence of intent, suffices to establish the existence of discrimination if other conditions - distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference or other differential treatment nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise of rights on equal footing - are fulfilled. In doing so, it critically discusses the relevant jurisprudence on discrimination of vulnerable groups of the European Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Justice, the Inter‑American Court of Human Rights, and treaty-monitoring bodies by deducing the underlying principles and applying them to the protection of these mothers. 

As a remedy, the author proposes the introduction of “special measures” - instruments already recognized in international legal treaties - explaining that in cases concerning disability, unlike those involving race, measures should not be necessarily described as “temporary.” Considering the rights of mothers of children with disabilities, it is crucial to focus on indirect discrimination. The most relevant difference for our considerations is the presence of discriminatory effect on certain groups even in the absence of discriminatory intent, for example, “when the agent is simply unaware of and indifferent to the effects” of the act.

Associative discrimination is the legal term that applies when someone is treated unfairly because either someone they know or someone they are associated with has a certain  protected characteristic. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) explicitly prohibits “excluding or otherwise denying equal jobs or benefits to a qualified individual because of the known disability of an individual with whom the qualified individual is known to have a relationship or association.”

Mothers of children with disabilities have to be treated differently from other people because their situation is significantly different.  These individuals simply have different needs that have to be addressed differently in order to enjoy opportunities as close as possible to those available to others. The same logic should be applied to caregivers, in this case, mothers of children with disabilities, whose needs also change because of situations in which they find themselves.

Book Review: "Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America (Politics and Culture in Modern America)"

 

Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America (Politics and Culture in Modern America), by Michael Glass. University of Pennsylvania Press: October 7, 2025. 336 pages, hardcover $34.95.

This book describes how debt and speculation financed the suburban American dream and led to today’s inequalities. In the popular imagination, the suburbs are synonymous with the “American Dream” of upward mobility and economic security. After World War II, white families rushed into newly built suburbs, where they accumulated wealth through homeownership and enjoyed access to superior public schools. In this revelatory new account of postwar suburbanization, historian Glass exposes the myth of uniform suburban prosperity. Focusing on the archetypal suburbs of Long Island, Cracked Foundations uncovers a hidden landscape of debt and speculation.

The author shows how suburbanites were not guaranteed decent housing and high-quality education but instead had to obtain these necessities in the marketplace using home mortgages and municipal bonds. These debt instruments created financial strains for families, distributed resources unevenly across suburbs, and codified racial segregation. Most important, debt transformed housing and education into commodities, turning homes and schools into engines of capital accumulation. The resulting pressures made life increasingly precarious, even for those privileged suburbanites who resided in all-white communities. 

For people of color denied the same privileges, suburbs became places where predatory loans extracted wealth and credit rating agencies punished children in the poorest school districts. Long Islanders challenged these inequalities over several decades, demanding affordable housing, school desegregation, tax equity, and school-funding equalization. Yet the unequal circumstances created by the mortgages and bonds remain very much in place, even today.

Cracked Foundations not only transforms our understanding of housing, education, and inequality but also highlights how contemporary issues like the affordable housing crisis and school segregation have their origins in the postwar golden age of capitalism.

Glass is an Assistant Professor of History at Boston College.