The Legacy of Redlining in Spokane: How Redlining Has and Continues to Affect East Central Spokane
Faculty Mentor
Larry Cebula
Document Type
Poster
Start Date
10-5-2023 11:15 AM
End Date
10-5-2023 1:00 PM
Location
PUB NCR
Department
History
Abstract
HOLC maps were created by the FHA in the 1920s to define a neighborhood's quality in order for banks to know which houses they should insure. The red areas of the map were marked hazardous and were denied insured mortgages. Areas would become red if more than a few Black residents moved in, so realtors and residents prevented Black people from moving out of red areas by using racial covenants, legal restrictions, and violence. Redlining, as it is now called, shaped cities by confining Black people to a few areas and became a form of easily hidden de jure segregation.
Spokane WA has not seen the effects of segregation to the extent that other regions in the U.S have. However, inhabitants assume that there are no lingering effects regarding segregation. Spokane has its own HOLC map which indicates the same pattern of marking areas with a population of Black residents as red zones. The HOLC map impacts East Central, the neighborhood which historically housed Spokane's Black population, despite its discontinuation in 1968. By comparing maps of Spokane since the installation of HOLC maps, a pattern of poor conditions appears in East Central. Maps of urban tree canopy, Heat islands, unemployment rates, I-90 placement, and Spokane's diversification over time were used in this research.
The construction of I-90 bisected East Central in 1968. 18 acres of Liberty Park was sold and used for construction along with many of the homes surrounding it. Other redlined neighborhoods throughout the U.S. met similar fates. More results showed that East Central had a tree canopy of around 14-17% while the highest percentage in Spokane was 40%. Less trees mean more heat, and East Central was up to 13.9 degrees hotter than other areas of Spokane. Additionally, a 1990s map of Spokane's unemployment rate showed that East Central had an unemployment rate of >20%. Despite the conditions of East Central, Black residents did not begin to disperse from this neighborhood until the 1980s.
Recommended Citation
Amante, Julianna, "The Legacy of Redlining in Spokane: How Redlining Has and Continues to Affect East Central Spokane" (2023). 2023 Symposium. 34.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2023/res_2023/p2_2023/34
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
The Legacy of Redlining in Spokane: How Redlining Has and Continues to Affect East Central Spokane
PUB NCR
HOLC maps were created by the FHA in the 1920s to define a neighborhood's quality in order for banks to know which houses they should insure. The red areas of the map were marked hazardous and were denied insured mortgages. Areas would become red if more than a few Black residents moved in, so realtors and residents prevented Black people from moving out of red areas by using racial covenants, legal restrictions, and violence. Redlining, as it is now called, shaped cities by confining Black people to a few areas and became a form of easily hidden de jure segregation.
Spokane WA has not seen the effects of segregation to the extent that other regions in the U.S have. However, inhabitants assume that there are no lingering effects regarding segregation. Spokane has its own HOLC map which indicates the same pattern of marking areas with a population of Black residents as red zones. The HOLC map impacts East Central, the neighborhood which historically housed Spokane's Black population, despite its discontinuation in 1968. By comparing maps of Spokane since the installation of HOLC maps, a pattern of poor conditions appears in East Central. Maps of urban tree canopy, Heat islands, unemployment rates, I-90 placement, and Spokane's diversification over time were used in this research.
The construction of I-90 bisected East Central in 1968. 18 acres of Liberty Park was sold and used for construction along with many of the homes surrounding it. Other redlined neighborhoods throughout the U.S. met similar fates. More results showed that East Central had a tree canopy of around 14-17% while the highest percentage in Spokane was 40%. Less trees mean more heat, and East Central was up to 13.9 degrees hotter than other areas of Spokane. Additionally, a 1990s map of Spokane's unemployment rate showed that East Central had an unemployment rate of >20%. Despite the conditions of East Central, Black residents did not begin to disperse from this neighborhood until the 1980s.
