A Tool of Mobility and A Mechanism of Exclusion

This StoryMap explores the relationship between Boston’s history of redlining and present-day access to public transportation. Redlining was a discriminatory housing practice used throughout the 1930s and beyond, in which neighborhoods with large Black and immigrant populations were labeled as “high risk” for investment. As a result, these communities were denied access to mortgages, loans, and other financial resources, reinforcing patterns of racial and economic segregation. In Boston, neighborhoods such as Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and the South End experienced decades of disinvestment, while predominantly white neighborhoods often received greater infrastructure investments and development opportunities. While redlining was effectively prohibited by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, its effects remain visible in patterns of wealth, housing, environmental conditions, and public services across the city.