Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/215

Rh Government was “giving away land” on the western frontier, and with it “the opportunity for upward mobility and a more secure future,” over the 1862 Homestead Act’s three-quarter-century tenure. Black people were exceedingly unlikely to be allowed to share in those benefits, which by one calculation may have advantaged approximately 46 million Americans living today.

Despite these barriers, Blackblack [sic] people persisted. Their so-called Great Migration northward accelerated during and after the First World War. Like clockwork, American cities responded with racially exclusionary zoning (and similar policies). As a result, Blackblack [sic] migrants had to pay disproportionately high prices for disproportionately subpar housing. Nor did migration make it more likely for Blackblack [sic] people to access home ownership, as banks would not lend to Blackblack [sic] people, and in the rare cases banks would fund home loans, exorbitant interest rates were charged. With Blackblack [sic] people still locked out of the Homestead Act giveaway, it is no surprise that, when the Great Depression arrived, race-based wealth, health, and opportunity gaps were the norm.

Federal and State Governments’ selective intervention further exacerbated the disparities. Consider, for example,