Cash on the Block

An incisive history of government and corporate failures to infuse capital into Black urban neighbourhoods—as well as the organisers and activists who stood up to predatory financial practices.

In the 1960s, conditions in impoverished Black neighbourhoods attracted mainstream attention as civil unrest erupted in hundreds of cities across the United States. Finally recognising the dire effects of racial segregation and urban disinvestment, politicians and corporations joined community activists to call for capital infusion, or reinvestment, in struggling communities. Proposals for reinvestment universally claimed the shared goal of reviving Black neighbourhoods, but most of these efforts—some well-meaning, others cynical and predatory—failed to do so.

As renowned historian Beryl Satter shows, private and government interests have long manipulated reinvestment programmes to benefit outside business, finance, and real estate professionals. Because these programmes focused on corporate tax breaks and federal insurance for lenders, they were easily exploited by private interests to divert funding from poor urban neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, community organisers proposed much bolder reinvestment plans that directly confronted institutionally racist practices. They called for a significant reallocation of resources, including government investments in depleted areas and guaranteed incomes for poor people. Activists, often working-class women, also united across racial divides to challenge predatory finance and real estate practices. Yet while they successfully advocated for laws to impede such behaviours, reform legislation often contained loopholes that accommodated racism and corporate greed.

To revive impoverished neighbourhoods, we must not only challenge institutional racism in finance and real estate but also resist government policies that enable predatory practices. Cash on the Block envisions a future in which reinvestment policy, guided by community leaders, at last benefits those it is meant to serve.