Through the first half of the 20th century, the federal government actively excluded Black people from government wealth-building programs.

In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal helped build a solid middle class through sweeping social programs, including Social Security and the minimum wage. But a majority of Black people at the time were agricultural laborers or domestic workers, occupations that were ineligible for these benefits. 

The establishment of the Home Owners Loan Corporation in 1933 helped save the collapsing housing market, but it largely excluded Black neighborhoods from government-insured loans. Those neighborhoods were deemed “hazardous” and colored in with red on maps, a practice that came to be known as “redlining.”

The G.I. Bill is often hailed as one of Roosevelt’s most enduring legacies. It helped usher millions of working-class veterans through college and into new homes and the middle class. But it discriminatorily benefited white people. While the bill didn’t explicitly exclude Black veterans, the way it was administered often did. The bill gave veterans access to mortgages with no down payments, but the Veterans Administration adopted the same racially restrictive policies as the Federal Housing Administration, which guaranteed bank loans only to developers who wouldn’t sell to Black people. 

Lee, Trymaine . "How America's Vast Racial Wealth Gap Grew: By Plunder." The New York Times magazine August 14th 2019. .