PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Leland Ware
TI  - <em>Plessy</em>’s Legacy: The Government’s Role in the Development and Perpetuation of Segregated Neighborhoods
AID  - 10.7758/RSF.2021.7.1.06
DP  - 2021 Feb 01
TA  - RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
PG  - 92--109
VI  - 7
IP  - 1
4099  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/7/1/92.short
4100  - http://www.rsfjournal.org/content/7/1/92.full
AB  - Plessy v. Ferguson provided the foundation for a system of segregation and exclusion that adversely affected African Americans throughout the twentieth century. Segregation was perpetuated by federal policies. During the 1940s and 1950s, the federal government facilitated the construction of suburban communities with Veterans Administration– and Federal Housing Authority–insured mortgages. These agencies invented redlining and required lending institutions to insert racially restrictive covenants in deeds for properties they insured. In the 1950s and 1960s, the federal government facilitated the construction of the interstate highway system. The freeways were frequently constructed through African American neighborhoods, displacing the residents. Urban renewal programs caused the destruction of African American communities across the nation. This long and tragic history of structural racism continues to adversely affect the well-being of African American families.