An important part of Popular Education is exploring the systems that shape our everyday lives. Often this requires exploring our own history. Help the world learn how racist planning policies from the 1930s still effect our neighborhoods today!
National Archives II in College Park, MD
Scan redlining maps and forms at the National Archives January 15th -16th. Please emails us at universityoforange@gmail.com for travel and lodging information.
In 1937 the Homeowners Loan Corporation (HOLC), an agency of the US government, sent surveyors into the field to rate sections of 200 cities for their investment-worthiness. This has become known as “redlining,” the process by which banks and other organizations deny funds to poor and marginalized neighborhoods. The maps are carefully filed in the National Archive, but not yet easily accessible to the public. And the survey forms are even less accessible, but they are of crucial importance for understanding how race and money were conceptualized at that decisive point in American history. There is a growing movement to get this material on the net, and the UofO plans to help. We will be going to the National Archives II in College Park, MD, to scan maps and documents that are not yet digitized. Come help us make this crucial data available to all.
Here’s some background information:
Slate Magazine: where to find historical redlining maps
Here is one resource for maps but not forms
An example of redlining rating forms for Oakland, CA
Queens Museum, New York
On February 1st, University of Orange will be organizing a panel and presenting work at the Queens Museum. The panel is titled, From Redlining to Gentrification. It will feature discussion by Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove, Molly Kaufman, and Rod Wallace. We will bring red-lining maps digitized from our trip to the national archives and discuss our findings.
This is a part of a larger program organized by 596 Acres, an organization doing great land-use work in New York. 596 Acres will run programming at the Queens museum based on their work around urban renewal plans. Learn More…..