15 The Legacy of Redlining in Jacksonville

Redlining, one of the most harmful and systematic forms of housing discrimination in American history, continues to cast a long shadow over communities of color. First implemented in the 1930s through the federal government’s Homeowners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) and later reinforced by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), redlining was a racist policy that mapped neighborhoods by risk level, with Black and immigrant neighborhoods labeled as “hazardous” in red ink. This classification effectively denied generations of Black families access to mortgages, wealth accumulation, and basic necessities needed to thrive as a community.

Although redlining policies were formally instituted at the national level in 1933 through agencies like the HOLC and FHA, Jacksonville did not publicly acknowledge or address the presence of redlining practices until decades later. The first recorded mention of redlining in a local context appeared in the Jacksonville Journal on December 4, 1973, forty years after the practice began shaping the city’s neighborhoods behind closed doors.[1] This significant delay in public recognition shows how deeply embedded and normalized discriminatory housing practices had become, allowing their effects to go unchallenged for generations.

In Jacksonville, Florida, redlining carved invisible yet deeply felt lines of segregation and disinvestment that have shaped the city’s educational and economic landscape for generations. These divisions did not fade with time; they evolved into racial wealth gaps, the underfunding of Black schools, and the marginalization of entire communities. Jacksonville stands as a living example of how these historical injustices continue to echo through present-day disparities. Despite civil rights legislation and decades of supposed progress, the economic and educational outcomes of Black residents in Jacksonville remain starkly unequal when compared to their white counterparts. Redlining’s legacy is not a relic of the past; it is a powerful force that still shapes modern disparities in education and economic development.

Historical Background of Redlining in Jacksonville

To understand the present, we must first confront the past. The origins of redlining can be traced to federal housing policies that formalized racial segregation. In 1933, the HOLC began creating “Residential Security Maps” for over 200 cities, including Jacksonville. These maps rated neighborhoods from “best” (green) to hazardous (red), with the red areas almost always being in communities with Black residents or other racial minorities, regardless of the actual financial risk posed by residents.[2] “This Section contains all of the areas on the Realty Area map which are classified as hazardous and embraces principally the negro areas of the city.”[3] In Jacksonville, neighborhoods like Moncrief, Durkeeville, and Springfield were redlined not because of poor housing quality or low incomes, but explicitly because Black families lived there. The HOLC’s area descriptions included coded and overtly racist language like “Negro concentration” or “infiltration.” “It is occupied 100% by negroes, except in the outlying portions where white are intermingled to the extent of about 25%.”[4] The FHA refused to insure mortgages in these zones, forcing Black residents into cycles of renting with inflated prices or relying on exploitative land contracts.

This discriminatory system locked Black families out of the wealth-building opportunities that white families were given. “The conditions of some range from poor to very poor, with some needing major and minor repairs and some needing demolition; so-called “slum areas” are scattered throughout the entire negro district.”[5] While white families used FHA-backed mortgages to buy homes and build equity, Black families were forced into overcrowded, under-resourced neighborhoods and denied the tools of economic mobility. The consequences of these policies were not just anecdotal but documented. As the Florida Star reported on April 29, 1978, “Statistics compiled by the U.S department of Justice released this week show that Florida ranks among the top four states in the nation in housing discrimination cases filed by the government and that Jacksonville produced one-third of the state’s cases.” This data shows how housing inequality in Jacksonville was not only persistent but egregious enough to attract national scrutiny, highlighting the scale of injustice Black communities endured long after redlining was formally outlawed.

Impact on Education

One of the most painful and far-reaching legacies of redlining in Jacksonville is its generational impact on education. The effects of redlining were never limited to housing, they bled into every institution meant to serve the public, especially schools. In redlined neighborhoods, public schools received less funding, fewer qualified teachers, and minimal infrastructure investment. Historically Black schools such as Stanton High School (now Stanton College Preparatory), despite their cultural and academic significance, were chronically underfunded throughout much of the early and mid-twentieth century. While white schools in “green” and “blue” rated neighborhoods were given new textbooks, science labs, and modern facilities, Black schools were left with overcrowded classrooms and hand-me-down materials, if they had received at all.

This underinvestment was not just unfortunate, it was intentional. School funding was (and still often is) tied to property taxes. Because property values in redlined neighborhoods were artificially suppressed, so too were school budgets. The results were devastating: lower student achievement, difficulty retraining qualified educators, and far fewer resources for enrichment programs. Even after the formal end of legal segregation, the inequality persisted. Schools zoning practices and funding formulas continued to disadvantage predominantly Black schools, ensuring that educational disparities remained deeply rooted.[6]

Today, those disparities are still visible. Public schools in historically redlined areas face overcrowded classrooms, aging facilities, and limited access to college preparatory programs. Without guidance counselors, Advanced Placement courses, or scholarship pipelines, countless Black students have been left at a disadvantage, without a clear path to higher education. These outcomes are not the result of individual failures; they are the result of systems designed to exclude. Generations of students have been robbed of opportunities not by accident, but by design.

Impact on Economic Development

Redlining also strangled economic development in Jacksonville’s Black communities. “The racial wealth gap puts mortgage applications out of reach for many black Americans. The median income of a black household in Jacksonville is $34,692, compared to $56,771 for a white household…. black residents are also more likely to be denied. In Jacksonville’s predominantly black neighborhoods, 30 percent of loan applications were dismissed, compared to 12 percent in the rest of the city.”[7] By denying Black residents access to mortgages and business loans,[8] banks, and lenders shut out entire neighborhoods from participating in the city’s growth. “In this Section range from $120 to $540 and about 15% to 20% of the properties are occupied by home-owners.”[9] Black families were blocked from buying homes in appreciating neighborhoods and therefore missed the generational wealth-building that homeownership provides.[10] “This particular race of people (negroes) have been the greatest sufferers during the depression, chiefly because they were laid off first and will be the last to be re-employed as business conditions improve.”[11]

In redlined communities like Durkeeville and parts of Springfield, businesses struggled to get loans for expansion. “The area included a 30-acre park and stately homes for members of Jacksonville’s black professional class. Nevertheless, in the 1930s, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) deemed LaVilla and Sugar Hill—along with other predominantly black neighborhoods—as hazardous or in decline. So-called hazardous areas “embrace[d] principally the Negro areas of the city” including “a community of the best class of Negros,”[12] as HOLC described them at the time. Entrepreneurs had to rely on personal saving or informal credit networks, which limited scalability. Jobs were scarce, and when they did exist, they often came with lower wages and no benefits. Employment discrimination compounded the problem, ensuring that even well-qualified Black residents were often overlooked for well-paying positions.

Fast forward to today, and many of the same redlined areas still lack grocery stores, banks, and stable employers, Instead, they are filled with check-cashing stores, fast food chains, and liquor stores. A reflection of decades of economic disinvestment. Gentrification threatens historically redlined areas. “It’s not only historically redlined areas that suffer from a lack of credit. Some neighborhoods that were predominantly African American decades ago have since gentrified and are now majority white. Today, they benefit from a large number of home mortgages from banks.”[13] Investments are finally pouring in, but not for the benefits of long-term residents. Property values are rising, taxes are increasing, and Black families who have lived in these communities for generations are being priced out of neighborhoods they have established for themselves despite the adversity faced from redlining.

Modern day Disparities and Lasting Effects

The impact of redlining is not a relic of the part, it is a blueprint for the present. The legacy of redlining remains deeply embedded in Jacksonville’s socio-economic landscape, as data from a 2020 study by the University of North Florida’s SOARS program found that neighborhoods in Jacksonville that were historically redlined still have the highest rates of poverty, the lowest-performing schools, and the worth health outcomes.[14] “In Jacksonville, new home mortgages still fall within the very same lines that banks’ drew to prevent black families from moving into white neighborhoods or building wealth some 80 years ago.”[15] The same maps that labeled neighborhoods “hazardous” in the 1930s now correspond with food deserts, poor infrastructure, and low voter turnout. “Mapping where banks approve or reject mortgages reveals a stark and dramatic pattern of disparity: Where de jure segregation was once the rule, de facto segregation still persists.”[16]

There is also a persistent racial gap. According to the Federal Reserve, the average Black family has about one-tenth the wealth of the average white family in the U.S, “Those with a Black householder made up 13.6% of all U.S. households but held only 4.7% of all wealth. And their median wealth ($24,520) was about one-tenth the median wealth of households with a White householder ($250,400),”[17] a gap that can be directly traced back to redlining and discriminatory housing policies. “The gulf between black and white households in new home mortgages reflects a vicious cycle—one in which a lack of wealth blocks the creation of new wealth, a cycle spanning generation.”[18] In Jacksonville, the effects are clear: property values in once redlined neighborhoods remained suppressed, and homeownership rates among Black residents las far behind white residents.

While programs like the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and various local initiatives have attempted to reverse the damage, the scale of the problem is vast. “Given that the CRA is not a federal assistance program and that several regulators implement it separately, no single federal agency is responsible for evaluating its overall effectiveness.”[19] However, many of these programs lack funding, oversight, or enforcement power to bring about meaningful change. Restorative policies must go beyond lip service; they must include actual wealth redistribution, equitable school funding, and anti-displacement protection to be truly effective. Without sustained investment and structural reform, the patterns established by redlining will continue to define Jacksonville’s future.

Call to Action

Redlining was more than a housing policy; it was a calculated strategy to deny Black Americans access to opportunity. In Jacksonville, this strategy succeeded in segregating the city, starving Black communities of resources, and embedding inequality into the city’s infrastructure. The scares of redlining are visible in our schools, our neighborhoods, and our economic systems.

The story of redlining in Jacksonville is not just about maps or policies; it is about people. Families who worked but were denied a fair shot. Students who dreamed big but were held back by underfunded schools. Entrepreneurs who had the vision but were locked out of capital. These are not isolated tragedies—they are systemic injustices with deep roots and continuing consequences.

But history does not have to dictate our future. We must invest in the communities that redlining tried to erase. That means fully funding schools in historically Black neighborhoods, supporting Black-owned businesses, enforcing fair housing laws, and empowering communities with the resources they need to thrive.

As someone committed to public service and advocacy, I believe we cannot repair what we refuse to confront. By confronting redlining’s legacy in Jacksonville, we take a step towards a future where opportunity is not determined by your ZIP code or your skin color, but by your dreams and your determination.