Redlining and Wealth Accumulation

This unit was created by US History Educators in New Brunswick Public Schools, as part of the 2021 cohort of The 1619 Project Education Network. It is designed for facilitation across approximately 1-to-2 weeks, or 4-to-5 80-minute class periods.

Objectives

1. Students will be able to explain how federal, state and local housing laws and policies advantaged white Americans throughout the 20th century, especially during the years from the Great Depression to the civil rights movement.
2. Students will be able to identify the legal structures that were put in place to create de jure segregation and the policies that were developed to remedy past injustices.
3. Students will be able to understand and explain how housing policies affect public schools and other community structures. 

Essential Questions

1. Why are so many American communities segregated?
2. What does segregation look like in my local community? 
3. What other parts of the community are affected by housing discrimination and segregation? 
4. What initiatives can be developed to remedy past inequities that were implemented by housing policies and laws?

Unit Overview

The accumulation of wealth is the driving force of US Capitalistic society. The idea of the American Dream is the impetus for generations of citizens and immigrants to seek opportunities to better themselves and members of their families, which, in turn, develops strong and vibrant communities. This vision and dream have not been received by all factions of society. 

This unit will examine the current realities of the American Dream and explore the historical practices and policies that aided the establishment of the current economic inequities among racial and ethnic minorities in their local communities.

In addition to assessing the historical frameworks that were put in place from a legal lens, students will also engage in problem-solving tasks that will allow them to develop solutions to longstanding historical ills that are applicable today.

Performance Task

Civic Engagement Activity: Group Research Task & Oral Presentation

Read the History of the Mount Laurel decision and view selected clips from the Jim Crow of the North documentary. Examine the parallels between the events around the New Jersey Supreme Court case and the current housing segregation in New Jersey. Create a presentation for an audience of New Brunswick City Council Members and New Brunswick Housing Authority detailing 2-to-3 initiatives you would recommend we put in place to address the issues of inequity your group uncovered.

One-to-two-week unit plan for teachers, including pacing, texts and multimedia resources, and performance task for the unit. Download below and scroll down to browse the unit resources. This unit contains some texts found in The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. Learn more about this book and how to access it here.

Facilitation Resources

State of New Jersey Student Learning Standards for US History

Era 6. The Emergence of Modern America: Progressive Reforms 

• 6.1.12.EconNE.6.a: Analyze the impact of money, investment, credit, savings, debt, and financial institutions on the development of the nation and the lives of individuals.

Era 9. The Great Depression and World War II: The Great Depression 

• 6.1.12.EconNE.9.b: Compare and contrast the causes and outcomes of the stock market crash in 1929 with other periods of economic instability. Governments and financial institutions influence monetary and fiscal policies.
• 6.1.12.EconNE.9.c: Explain how the government can adjust taxes, interest rates, and spending and use other policies to restore the country’s economic health.
• 6.1.12.EconNE.9.d: Explain the interdependence of various parts of a market economy (i.e., private enterprise, government programs, and the Federal Reserve System). There are multiple and complex causes and effects of historical events.
• 6.1.12.A.9.a: Analyze how the actions and policies of the United States government contributed to the Great Depression. Evidence from multiple relevant historical sources and interpretations can be used to develop a reasoned argument about the past.
• 6.1.12.HistoryUP.9.a: Analyze the impact of the Great Depression on the American family and ethnic and racial minorities.

Era 10. The Great Depression and World War II: New Deal

• 6.1.12.CivicsPR.10.b: Assess the effectiveness of governmental policies enacted during the New Deal period in protecting the welfare of individuals (i.e., FDIC, NLRB, and Social Security). Political and economic decisions throughout time have influenced cultural and environmental characteristics of various places and regions.
• 6.1.12.EconEM.10.a: Constructs a claim that evaluates short- and long-term impact of the expanded role of government on economic policy, capitalism, and society.

Formative Assessment: Closing Reflections

At the end of each lesson students who experienced this unit in New Brunswick Public Schools in fall 2021 responded to question prompts that allowed them to define key terms in their own words and capture their understanding of key concepts. Some selected student responses to the lesson on racial disparities in wealth accumulation are below.

Wealth is assets - such as a house, savings or investment account. Wealth allows households to provide families the means to invest in their children’s education, to start a business, relocate for new and better opportunities, buy a house and have greater participation in the democratic process. Wealth also allows households to prepare for financial emergencies such as a layout or a family member’s illness. 

11th Grade Student in NBPS

Wealth is when you have a lot of things and it lasts a really long time. If we are talking about money then if one person is wealthy then the money would last for generations and generations. You can be rich and not wealthy because rich is when you have the amount for now for you that's it and not for anyone else but wealth is when YOUR money or YOUR things last generations whether thats houses, cars, money, businesses, just any type of property it is wealth and last a long time. 

11th Grade Student in NBPS

What can be done to address the wealth disparity in the United States is to note that Black households in the United States earn $24,100, compared with $189,100 for white households. The Black-white wealth disparity is nothing new, but the gap seems to have widened again because of the pandemic that is especially hurting Black Americans. They’re at higher risk of losing their jobs, work in jobs with greater exposure to the virus, and living in communities with weaker health care infrastructures than white Americans. To stop this wealth disparity in the United States, the National Advisory Council on eliminating the Black-white Wealth Gap has a range of novel policy proposals throughout 2020 that target towards Black Americans. By building and expanding on several existing proposals that could reduce the wealth disparity between Black and white households, Black Americans can gain more wealth and help shrink the Black-white wealth gap.

11th Grade Student in NBPS

What can be done to address the wealth disparity in the United States is, giving all people the "same deal," meaning that no one has more than another, that everyone has the same opportunities, since many people (Latinos, immigrants, Black people, etc) do not have the same opportunity that other people have, which is why the wealth disparity is formed. I think this could be solved by giving people opportunities they don't have: aid programs, quality schools, good jobs, etc. This could help fix this problem.

11th Grade Student in NBPS

We have tried a lot of things throughout history to address the wealth disparity in the United states. It is still bad for Black people and especially Black women. There are a variety of things that we could do but we have to build on a lot of things tried in the past. For example, we could try to even out the taxes or raise the income of the poorest Americans. We could go straight to court and make a new law to try to even out the wealth disparities just a bit in the United States. 

11th Grade Student in NBPS