Skip to Main Content

Section 2: Overview

A Dream Deferred

We will examine the history of discrimination and segregation in relation to homeownership in the United States by considering the following question: Why has homeownership been a “dream deferred” for many Americans?

To study the history of housing discrimination in America, we will examine material that addresses Federal Housing Administration practices, such as redlining and restrictive covenants, which led to the segregation of suburbia, the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and recent practices associated with affordable housing and gentrification in American cities. We will continue to develop our abilities to analyze and evaluate arguments related to discriminatory housing practices and affordable housing debates.

  • Lesson 1:

    We will continue to study the mythology of homeownership in America, recognizing that the American Dream, while compelling, has not been equally accessible to all Americans—a fact that Langston Hughes has referred to as a “dream deferred.” We will examine the imagery in the Hughes poem and read an excerpt from a Smithsonian article by Isabel Wilkerson that overviews the Great Migration, with a focus on the discriminatory housing practices that Black Americans faced when they arrived in northern cities like Chicago. Through our work examining and comparing these texts, we will develop claims that investigate the following question: Why has homeownership been a “dream deferred” for many Americans?

  • Lesson 2:

    We will learn more about the discriminatory practices faced by potential Black home buyers from the 1930s through the 1960s in cities like Chicago. We will examine the practice of redlining, explore its implementation through real estate and lending practices promoted by the Federal Housing Administration, and learn about the immediate and lasting impact of those practices on the economic and educational opportunities for Black Americans.

  • Lesson 3:

    We will learn how Martin Luther King Jr. and others fought to overcome the discriminatory housing practices in Chicago and other cities through the Chicago Freedom Movement, a movement which, after Dr. King’s death, eventually led to the passage of the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968. We will also learn about publicly funded low-income housing and about the political debates around the legacy of attempts to provide fair, affordable, and non-discriminatory housing.

  • Lesson 4:

    We will study data displays for American cities that indicate continuing patterns of racial segregation in US communities. We will develop claims about the patterns we see and consider those claims in relation to a recent op-ed essay by former Vice President Walter Mondale, one of the original framers of the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and an advocate for its provision that communities take active measures to reduce segregation. We will use what we have learned to inform a class debate.

  • Lesson 5:

    We will examine the causes and effects of the dearth of affordable housing in the United States—including the accelerating crisis of homelessness. We will study aspects of the affordable housing debate, interpreting data and forming claims about affordable housing and low-income households in the United States.

  • Lesson 6:

    We will read, delineate, and evaluate arguments about affordable housing in the United States in order to expand our understanding of the issue and the various debates and responses it inspires.

  • Lesson 7:

    We will Read “Disarming the Great Affordable Housing Debate” and delineate and evaluate its argument by writing a well-developed response.

  • Lesson 8:

    We will review feedback on the Section Diagnostic. We will use the feedback to make revisions to our work.

  • Lesson 9:

    We will share the understandings we have gained by reading our independent reading texts and continue to read our texts.