Black Americans received only 2 percent of FHA-insured loans from 1945 to 1959

Evidence

Note the “almost” in referring to the new mostly white middle class. Government assistance helped increase the white homeownership rate throughout the middle of the century, from 46 percent in 1940 to 57 percent in 1950 to 64 percent in 1960.18 But even in the face of government opposition—it’s estimated that black Americans received only 2 percent of all federally insured FHA loans issued between 1945 and 1959—black Americans also managed to increase their rate of homeownership from 23 percent in 1940 to 34 percent in 1950 to 38 percent in 1960. — Dorothy A. Brown, The Whiteness of Wealth, 51

Categorization

• CANDY: The 2-percent FHA loan stat is a single hard number that lands hard in conversation.