No program epitomized the boomer progressive synthesis better than the efforts to increase black homeownership launched by the Clinton administration in the 1990s. Using the power of Fannie Mae and a flexible mortgage market, instructions went out to help get more black and minority families in homes of their own.
There is nothing wrong with the idea in many ways. Home ownership has been the foundation of middle class prosperity and wealth accumulation for many American families: $12.5 trillion in home equity, most of it held by middle class households, provides financial security, dignity and stability to millions of American families. I have written at length about how the owner occupied home replaced the owner-occupied farm as the central institution of American life in the 20th century.
While some black families were able to take advantage of the opportunity, many more were not. From the start of the postwar boom through the 1960s, legal barriers kept blacks out of the housing market in many neighborhoods and subdivisions. Blacks who tried to move into white neighborhoods met with mob violence in some cases, but usually other obstacles kept them “in their place”. Banks discriminated against African American borrowers, “redlined” neighborhoods where blacks lived, and otherwise helped separate black Americans from the most successful middle class wealth creating mechanism in modern American history.