In the 1970’s National People’s Action, under the leadership of Gale Cincotta and a host of committed neighborhood leaders from around the country used their personal experience and data made available by the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to make the case for the passage of CRA. They realized then that the systematic redlining and disinvestment in low, moderate and minority neighborhoods was not only a fundamental injustice, but realized that a two-tiered system of credit allocation was not sustainable. Barring entire swaths of the country from accessing the life-blood of capitalism wasn’t just draining the neighborhoods affected, it was a threat to the economic well being of the nation as a whole.
