In DC’s single-family zones, the legacy of the Federal Housing Administration’s Jim Crow era endures (opens in new tab)

In 1937, at the zenith of the Jim Crow era, the staff at the Federal Housing Administration undertook an ambitious national project: to survey America’s largest cities and racially profile every neighborhood. Their stated goal was to rate each neighborhood’s “loan worthiness.” Such ratings served as a guide for staff making subsidized federal home loans, as well as for tens of thousands of private lenders. The grades ranged from A to H, and were explicitly based on a neighborhood’s share of B...