Redlining: How Government Drew Maps to Segregate The U.S. government literally drew maps to decide which neighborhoods Black people could live in. In the 1930s, the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) created "security maps" of 250 American cities, color-coding neighborhoods based on racial makeup: Green for white ("Best"), Yellow for declining ("mixed races"), and Red for "Hazardous" where Black people lived. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the National Community Reinvestme