What Seattle’s redlining history tells us about wealth today

Ashli Blow

Ashli Blow Jul 6, 2025

Nov 9, 2018

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          <article>
            <header>
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                <h1>What Seattle’s redlining history tells us about wealth today</h1>
                <h2><p>It started with the Great Depression. Rampant foreclosures had left lenders fearful and so the federal government devised a solution. It would encourage banks to loan money to would-be home buyers by developing maps that would show where their mortgages were most likely, and least likely to be paid in</p></h2>
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               <p>By <a href="/author/ashli-blow/">Ashli Blow</a></p> 
              <p><time datetime="2025-02-04T05:00:00-08:00">Nov 9, 2018</time></p>
            </header>
            <figure class="kg-card kg-embed-card"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mBQE5rrWDfA?ecver=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><p>It started with the Great Depression. Rampant foreclosures had left lenders fearful and so the federal government devised a solution. It would encourage banks to loan money to would-be home buyers by developing maps that would show where their mortgages were most likely, and least likely to be paid in full. It was called “redlining” and the stated aim was economic development. The result was racial discrimination. Historian James Gregory tells us more about how it happened, when it ended and where its repercussions are still being felt.</p>
          </article>

It started with the Great Depression. Rampant foreclosures had left lenders fearful and so the federal government devised a solution. It would encourage banks to loan money to would-be home buyers by developing maps that would show where their mortgages were most likely, and least likely to be paid in full. It was called “redlining” and the stated aim was economic development. The result was racial discrimination. Historian James Gregory tells us more about how it happened, when it ended and where its repercussions are still being felt.

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By Ashli Blow

Ashli Blow is a Seattle-based freelance writer who talks with people — in places from urban watersheds to remote wildernesses — about the environment around them. She’s been working in journal