FDR signs Home Owners Loan Act creating HOLC agency color-coding neighborhoods

President Roosevelt signs the Home Owners' Loan Act, creating the Home Owners' Loan Corporation to refinance Depression-era mortgages for struggling homeowners. Starting in 1935, HOLC commissions "Residential Security" maps of 239 U.S. cities, color-coding neighborhoods from green ("Best") to red ("Hazardous"). Neighborhoods with significant Black populations are systematically rated "D" and red. The maps document and institutionalize existing lending discrimination, providing a federal template that private lenders and the FHA adopt as standard practice.