Pre-session Content

Please take a look through these linked resources before this session. It will help you be more engaged in the material presented and the discussions that will be taking place.

Required Content

Adam Ruins Everything - The Disturbing History of the Suburbs | truTV
Watch — 6min
How did racism dictate our urban form? Learn about redlining, the racist housing policy from the Jim Crow era that still affects us today.

How The Green Line, a Pink House And 12 Cents Changed How I See My City
Listen — 11min
If you want to buy a house, you can get a bank loan .... right? What if banks refuse to lend to you, simply because of where you wanted to live?

Where Banks Don’t Lend
Read or Listen — 17min
Lenders have lent more to a single white neighborhood than all-black neighborhoods combined. Learn why this inequity persists.

Interactive Maps
Before the session, please take a minute and locate your home on one of the following maps. Was your neighborhood categorized? What category? What do you know about how your neighborhood has changed over the last 100 years?

Redlining in Chicago, IL
Explore the areas of Chicago that have been historically subjected to redlining. How has that impacted the demographics we see today?

Optional Articles and Videos

What’s Kept Black Families Out of Atlanta’s Housing Market
Listen — 4min
In metro Atlanta, the number of black homebuyers dropped by half over the last decade. It was one of the steepest declines in the country. What's pushing this decline?

How the U.S. Government Segregated Chicago
Watch — 8min
Chicago has a long history of racist housing policies that have led to a racially divided city – a major factor behind the city's reputation of violence.

America’s Cities Were Designed to Oppress
Architects and planners have an obligation to protect health, safety and welfare through the spaces we design. As the George Floyd protests reveal, we’ve failed.