A recent edition of the “MTSU On the Record” radio program took a look at the history of racial discrimination in home loans.

Dr. Louis Woods

Host Gina Logue’s interview with Dr. Louis Woods, assistant professor of history, aired in July on WMOT-FM (89.5 and www.wmot.org ). You can listen to their conversation here.

In an article for the Journal of Urban History, Woods chronicled the Federal Home Loan Bank Board’s discriminatory practices from 1921 to 1950.

Woods asserts that the agency’s methods considered neighborhood demographics a huge factor in assessing property values. The effect was to label entire residential areas as bad loan risks because the inhabitants, usually minorities, were considered “undesirable.”    

Even middle-class neighborhoods surrounding historically black colleges and universities received lower assessments by comparison to middle-class neighborhoods surrounding predominantly white institutions, said Woods.

Video from the interview is available below.

To listen to previous “MTSU On the Record” programs, visit the “Audio Clips” archives here and here.

For more information about “MTSU On the Record,” contact Logue at 615-898-5081 or WMOT-FM at 615-898-2800.