Summary
Mapping Inequality is a digital humanities project that visualizes historical redlining maps created in the 1930s to show how discriminatory housing policies shaped American cities.
Project Details
- Who: Historians and DH scholars (including teams from universities like Richmond, Maryland, and others)
- Where: United States (multiple cities)
- When: Launched around 2015
- Audience: Students, researchers, educators, and the general public
Scope
The project digitizes and maps Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) maps and includes area descriptions that explain how neighborhoods were graded.
Significance
This project is important because it:
- Reveals systemic racism in housing
- Connects history to present-day inequality
- Demonstrates how DH can make complex data accessible
Project link: https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining/map#loc=9/38.6759/-75.8814