By enacting the CRA, lawmakers aimed to reverse the disinvestment associated with years of government policies and market actions that deprived lower-income and predominantly minority areas of credit and investment. Even with these critical laws, the legacy of discriminatory lending and systemic inequity in credit access remains in evidence today.
The typically minority neighborhoods demarcated in red in the old color-coded maps tend to be characterized by worse economic performance and  I am grateful to Taz George of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and Amanda Roberts, Joseph Firschein, and Carrie Johnson of the Federal Reserve Board for their assistance in preparing this text.