Mapping Inequality: Exploring Personal History in Redline Maps and the 1940 Census

Designing Inequality

The Detroit Eight Mile Wall is a one-foot-thick , six-foot-high  separation wall that stretches about 12 mile. It was constructed in 1941 to physically separate Black and white homeowners on the sole basis of race. The wall no longer serves to racially segregate homeowners and, as of 1971, both sides of the barrier have been predominately Black. Photo by John Vachon / Library of Congress

This is repost of a lesson I did in my social studies methods class at University of Portland. It explored the largely forgotten government policies that segregated nearly every major American city and metro area. We also looked at how those unconstitutional actions fostered inequality in America since their enactment in the 1930s.

Scroll down for student projects.


In preparation for this class,
students watched the video Segregated by Design.

class session – via Zoom

Class opened with the brief film Housing Segregation and Redlining in America: A Short History. I then put students into breakout groups and (using a Jamboard) they created mind maps of the legacy of redlined neighborhoods based on what they had seen in the two introductory videos. They brainstormed and developed visual comparisons that explored multiple factors such as – income, wealth, health, schools, policing, services, employment, environment.

Next I introduced the tools they would use for the lesson – digitized version of  1940 US Census and the website Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America . Mapping Inequality allows the user to explore the “redline” maps created by agents of the federal government’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) between 1935 and 1940. The maps are displayed over contemporary maps that make it easy to view where redline districts are today.

HOLC Map of Portland Or See interactive map here.



Next I took them to the the 1940 US Census and showed them how to look up street addresses and navigate to specific neighborhoods. I shared census pages from some Portland neighborhoods.

Sample “Best” and “Hazardous” neighborhoods

Best” A7 Arlington Heights District- Census page from 229 SW Wright Ave. in A7 | 229 SW Wright Today

Clarifying Remarks from HOLC map: Deed restrictions have expired but single-family residential zoning and topography give ample protection. Infiltration of Subversive Races is remote. Foreign-born families: 0% Negro: none. Residents: Executives, business and professional men, retired capitalists, etc.


Hazardous” D8 Southwest River District – Census page from 931 SW 1st Ave in Portland in D8. | Rooming house torn down. 931 SW 1st is now the World Trade Center

Clarifying Remarks from HOLC map: This is distinctly a workingmen’s rental district and approximately half of the population being employed in the industrial plants along the river.
Infiltration of Subversive Races has occurred. Foreign-born families 35%; Orientals 750 Chinese, 250 Japanese, 35 Filipinos, Negro 30%


How to search in Census of 1940

Note: it helps to refer to Blank 1940 Census form showing categories

You will “search by location where the person lived.” Begin by narrow search by state, county, city, street. 

After you click search, you have the option to add a cross street. 

It will take you to multipage document that may not exactly zero in on the intersection you wanted. You may need to scroll through some pages to get to that location. You can find the streets and house numbers on far left. (Street written vertically) 


The assignment

I wanted the student to draw a personal connection between the HOLC categories (best, still desirable, definitely declining and hazardous) and the data from the 1940 census. To demonstrate, I shared my mother’s family entry from 1940 census then showed that my grandparents and family were living in a HOLC designated “Definitely Declining” neighborhood. I shared some family photos of the house and neighborhood. Then we looked at the family home value in 1940 and shared how the neighborhood had steadily declined to the point that the home today is currently valued at less than one-half of the inflation-adjusted value listed in the 1940 census.

I knew that not all students would be able to find a family listing in the census nor might they ever have lived in a city mapped by HOLC. So I left the final product very open ended and invited them to make connections that worked for them.


Sample student work

A number of students were able to find family members on the census and family home in the HOLC maps


A few students focused on the history of homes they lived in.


Some students looked how the HOLC influenced residential options for immigrant groups


Others looked at redlining’s impact on property values and neighborhood development

Fight Racism with VR

Fight Racism with VR

These virtual and augmented reality programs allow the user to shift their point of view and experience the legacy of segregation in America. Students and teachers can “step inside” these immersive environments and feel the weight of systemic racism. These cutting edge approaches can inspire the next generation in America’s fight for social justice.
Descriptions by creators.

I am a Man VR

I Am A Man” VR Experience is an interactive virtual reality experience set to the historic events of the African- American Civil Rights Movement. Users will witness the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker’s Strike and the events leading to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. using the Oculus Rift VR headset. The VR project was created by Derek Ham and won an award for funding through the Oculus Launch Pad program.

Traveling While Black

Traveling While Black is a cinematic VR experience that immerses the viewer in the long history of restriction of movement for black Americans and the creation of safe spaces in our communities.

Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams and Emmy Award-winning Felix & Paul Studios’ film transports you to historic Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington DC. The viewer shares an intimate series of moments with several of the patrons of Ben’s as they reflect on their experiences of restricted movement and race relations in the U.S.

1,000 Cut Journey


1,000 Cut Journey is an Immersive Virtual Reality experience in which participants embody a Black male, Michael Sterling, experiencing racism as a child through disciplinary action in the classroom, as an adolescent encountering the police, and as a young adult experiencing workplace discrimination.

Mapping Amache

Mapping Amache: The Amache Internment Camp is located near Granada, Colorado. It is where over 10,000 Japanese-American citizens and persons of Japanese ancestry were forced to live from 1942-1945. It is also called Granada Relocation Center.

This weblog is intended to follow along with the long-term project of mapping this one square mile of earth where so much history took place. The basic map of Amache has been developed over the last few years. There are layers for things like roads, boundary, housing blocks, barracks and so forth. The challenge is to present this information in a way that makes it useful, accessible and honors the people who lived there.

Featured image credit
Girl at the March on Washington with Banner 8/28/1963
National Archives National Archives Identifier: 542030

Pre-Twitter Racist Rant

Race-baiting before social media? Here’s an excerpt from “Don’t Be a Sucker” – a short film which warns of the dangers of promoting racism in America. It was produced by the United States Department of War and released in 1943 (and adapted as a slightly shorter version in 1947.)

This dramatized film uses the experience of a Hungarian American to warn against the dangers of persecuting minorities. Reacting to a hate-filled political speech in an American city, he recalls how similar speeches led to Nazi persecution of minority groups and the eventual destruction of German society. The film was also made to make the case for the desegregation of the United States armed forces. It is held for preservation by the U.S. National Archives. Full 23 min version here.

Driving While Black in Mid Century America

Green Book 1948

Between 1936 and 1966, the “Negro Travelers’ Green Book” (or the “Green Book” as it was commonly known) was an essential travel guide for Black Americans. It was created by Victor H. Green, an enterprising New York mailman and Black-American travel agent. Organized by state and city, it listed business who would accept black clientele – hotels, restaurants, filling stations, tailors, beauty parlors. It also included travel themed articles featured black-friendly resorts and sites. For more see my post Segregated America’s TripAdvisor.

Enter the world of the Black traveler in post-war America who faced humiliation, insults and fear of being stranded without travel essentials.

The New York Public Library’s Digital Collections recently launched Navigating The Green Book, a public domain remix by Brian Foo of NYPL Labs. The mapping tool give the user insights into the world of the Black traveler in post-war America who faced humiliation, insults and fear of being stranded without travel essentials. Racist social codes made “driving while black” a hazard in some locales. As the Green Book noted its the cover, “Carry Your Green Book With You – You May Need It.”

Users can enter in two US addresses and determine what Green Book recommended services they’d find along the route (two data sets are currently indexed – 1947 and 1956.) Here’s a 1956 trip from Seattle to Salt Lake City. Only three restaurants and one hotel.

Seattle to Salt Lake City

Users can also use a cluster or heat maps to visualize the the geotagged data. Here’s a “heat map” of US in 1956. Yellow / red colors indicate more Black-friendly services.

US Heat map 1956

Finally at the listing level, the user can click into any of locations and get specific metadata including a link to a digitized version of the Green Book page for the service. (1956 Green Book)

NYC to Atlanta with listing

Segregated America’s TripAdvisor

hotel clark

“Carry your GREEN BOOK with you – You may need it.”

We’re accustomed to doing our own travel planning with TripAdvisor, Yelp and other web-based guides. But imagine you’re a Black family driving to a reunion across mid-20th century America. You faced humiliation, insults and fear of being stranded without travel essentials. Racist social codes made “driving while black” a hazard in some locales. Fortunately you could turn to the “bible of black travel during Jim Crow” – the “Negro Travelers’ Green Book.” 

Green-Book

The “Green Book” as it was commonly known, was created by Victor H. Green, an enterprising New York mailman and Black-American travel agent. First launched in 1936 as a New York-focused edition, Green eventually expanded coverage to all of North America and the Caribbean. The book was essential to American Black middle class families as well as salesmen, entertainers and athletes who traveled for business. Organized by state and city, it listed business who would accept black clientele – hotels, restaurants, filling stations, tailors, beauty parlors. It also included travel themed articles featured black-friendly resorts and sites. Green gathered information by offering his readers a dollar reward for supplying information “on the Negro motoring conditions, scenic wonders in your travels, places visited of interest and short stories on one’s motoring experience.”

Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 12.26.28 PM

While northeastern urban areas had many listings, some states were clearly not hospitable to the black traveler. The 1949 edition (pdf) had only a few listings in Portland for the entire state of Oregon.

As Green noted in the intro to the 1949 edition: There will be a day sometime in the near future when this guide will not have to be published. That is when we as a race will have equal opportunities in the United States. It will be a great day for us to suspend the publication for then we can travel wherever we please, and without embarrassment. But until that time comes will shall continue to publish this information for your convenience each year.

With the exception of the WWII era, Green published the book until 1966. He ceased publication following the passage of the Civil Rights act of 1964.

Link to 1956 edition. Click image below to view interactive map of the 1956 listings.

Green book interactive map
Note: This video opens at the 1:02 mark, skipping over graphic images of lynchings.

Image credit: Library of Congress
Memphis, Tennessee. October 1939.
Marion Post Wolcott, photographer.
“Secondhand clothing stores and pawn shop on Beale Street.”
[Sign: “Hotel Clark, The Best Service for Colored Only.”]
Location: E-2185
Reproduction Number: LC-USF33-30637-M3