WHY I JOINED THE FIGHT AGAINST RACIAL BIAS IN HOME-LENDING IN 1977

As people worldwide express support for the Black Lives Matter movement, I have been reflecting upon my lifetime commitment to end systemic racism. One often overlooked aspect of such racism is the illegal practice of redlining, the granting of home loans based solely upon the racial/ethnic composition of a neighborhood rather than the creditworthiness of the borrower. This is where I have been focusing my efforts.

While serving as a volunteer at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and Western Center on Law and Poverty, I read a newspaper study on redlining in San Diego County. Its headline was “Low-income, Minority Home Loans Avoided. 98% Of Funds Go Elsewhere in Area” and it ran in The San Diego Union on Jan. 16, 1977. The report reflected a nationwide trend of racial discrimination by the federal government and private financial institutions. The report relied upon data derived from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975.

In response to this article, I organized the San Diego Coalition Against Redlining (SDCAR), a multiracial volunteer organization composed of representatives from underserved communities. In June 1978, we publicly released an updated Home Mortgage Disclosure report, which revealed widespread redlining in San Diego County. As a result of the negative publicity generated by the report, as well as a lack of community support for our efforts, we decided to call it quits in July 1978. However, I continued my quest for racial justice by obtaining a bilingual teaching credential and working as an educator in a predominantly Hispanic school near the Mexican border.

In September 1991, however, disaster struck. While vacationing in Puerto Vallarta, I became gravely ill with a neurological condition/ viral infection known as Guillain-barré Syn