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Slave Clyde Ross's Mortality Rate In Neighborhoods

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In 1961, former slave Clyde Ross purchased a house in Lawndale, Chicago with his wife. To them, this was a huge success as Ross had spent much of his life living under the regime of sharecropping in the South. However, his success soon backfired on him as he and his wife were exploited under his “on contract” agreement on the house (Coates, p. 57). Under these contracts, previous homeowners keep the deed on the house until it is paid off in full. Extremely challenging terms were usually made in these contracts, such as missing a single payment would cause the tenant to forfeit the contract altogether, and lose the initial down payment and any previous monthly payments on the house (Coates, p. 57). The contractors would do this systematically, …show more content…

Neighborhoods that had black populations in them were often rated a D, and could not receive the insurance. Overtime, Lawndale and neighborhoods like it turned into ghettos from the lack of maintenance and the continual exploitation of black families who could never pay off the houses. Today, 92% of the population is black, the homicide rate is 45 per every 100,000 which is three times higher than the overall average in the city (Coates, p. 59). The infant mortality rate in Lawndale is 14 per every 100,000 – double the national average and 43% of the people residing in Lawndale live below the poverty line, which is also double the national average (Coates, p. 59). The story of Clyde Ross and Lawndale is just one example of the obstacles faced by blacks even after slavery was abolished. It is clear that it was specifically black families that were targeted by contract sellers and that were bypassed by the FHA to be given insurance. The appearance of equality overshadowed the reality of the situation for blacks, which was that they were frequently exploited and contained in neighborhoods that did not receive governmental assistance, while whites were benefitting from the new governmental agencies while many of them simultaneously

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