The Civil Rights Act made discrimination illegal.
It didn’t undo the centuries of racism that produced modern day inequality.
-
Wealth: Redlining denied Black families access to
homeownership for decades — the primary engine of U.S. wealth. Today, the median white family holds
~8× the wealth of the median Black family.
Federal Reserve, +2
Citations
Median white household wealth remains roughly 8× that of Black households,
largely due to federally backed redlining and exclusion from New Deal housing
programs.
-
Incarceration: After slavery, convict leasing
criminalized Black life to preserve forced labor. That logic persists:
Black Americans are incarcerated at
~5× the rate of white Americans.
EJI, BJS, +3
-
Education: Segregated housing produced segregated
schools — even after 1964. Majority-Black districts receive
~$2,200 less per student than majority-white districts.
EdBuild, UCLA, +2
These gaps didn’t appear by chance.
They are the predictable outcome of past policy.