Redlining in Pennsylvania The novel, Loving Day, by Mat Johnson looks at the issues of biracial identity and inner conflict of defining one’s personal identify based on their ethnicity and race. The setting of the novel Germantown Pa is a good metaphor for conflicting cultural identities within the context of a community that was predominantly white until the 1950s when two thirds of the residence moved out of the fear of their black neighbors destroying their property values, racist views toward African American residence and the want to live in a “nice neighborhood” meaning white. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) a government agency, established by the National Housing Act of 1934, regulates interest rates and mortgage terms after …show more content…
After WWI, one account told of Thomas Henry a southern black migrant raising a family in a predominantly white neighborhood on Mifflin Street, they received death threats and Henrys property was set on fire and he was severely beaten. In the Psychology of blacks an African American perspective of identifying themselves culturally, feelings and adoption of behaviors. Identity for African Americans serves as a means for providing a social anchor, meaning to one’s existence, connection with others who identify as African American and a buffer against dehumanizing messages by media and outside groups. The workplace was sparse and hired white men coming back from WWI, African American men and their families were regulated by means of violence or loan discrimination to settle in the overcrowded Northern Philadelphia or along the bad part of the Delaware River. With the population movement of Blacks to Philadelphia Tenant housing owners converted apartments to house large amounts of people, increased rental unit prices and stopped regular maintenance of the bathrooms and sewage leading to widespread disease.