The Color of Money
Text of the Pulitzer-winning articles
Back to Power ReportingBill Dedman received the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting in 1989 for "The Color of Money," which described racial discrimination in mortgage lending in middle-income neighborhoods in Atlanta and across the nation. The articles are reprinted here with permission from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution.
You can also download a PDF version of the original articles and photographs (12MB file). The PDF file has the benefit of including Doug Marlette's cartoons (but fewer of the follow-up articles).
- Day one, May 1, 1988:
- Atlanta blacks losing in home loans scramble: Banks favor white areas by 5-1 margin
- Fulton's Michael Lomax: "If I can't get a loan, what black person can?"
- A tale of two neighborhoods, one black and one white
- How study of home loans in metro Atlanta was carried out
- Ranking banks on black vs. white loans
- Ranking lenders on black, working-class loans
- Day two, May 2, 1988:
- Southside treated like banks' stepchild?
- Selling lettuce, he built $3 million firm, but can't get business loan
- Poor may be left behind by bank deregulation
- Activists picket residence of HUD secretary
- Where blacks bank
- Small-business lending
- Day three, May 3, 1988:
- A test that few banks fail -- in federal eyes
- Despite "good citizen" image, Trust Company finds itself in a battle
- The 12 factors in a CRA examination
- Day four, May 4, 1988:
- Bank protesters in Atlanta make ready to flex muscle
- City Council calls meeting to review lending patterns
- Months of work, but lending pool still bone-dry
- Self-help the aim of non-profit housing corporations
- "Anybody can sit out there and mouth off -- he gets things done"
- City Hall clout could sweeten home-loan pot
- Where to report discrimination
- Public deposits: Where governments put public money
- Follow-up articles:
- Panel to probe banks' lending policies
- Black legislators seek to probe loan pattern with state bank chief
- Lomax house reassessed; taxes up $520
- State bank chief urges lending law
- Loan disclosures touch nerve among blacks, bankers
- Atlanta NAACP calls for boycott, federal probe of banks
- U.S. "looking into" banks' practices
- Black clergy consider boycott of banks over lending practices
- Banks plan to lend $65 million at low interest
- Black leaders, bankers break bread over vows of improved lending
- Blacks call banks' loan programs "step in right direction"
- Some families with very little in savings may be able to buy home
- Black boycott forestalled by loan plan
- Loan programs are drawing lot of interest
- Fair Lending panel identifies goals, begins planning for public hearing
- Banks open Saturday for low-interest loans
- Ministers, activists demand long-term action from banks
- Banking chief reverses stand calling for fair-lending laws
- Bankers take eye-opening Southside tour
- Black appraisers shut out by hiring rule of major lenders
- Detroit banks following Atlanta lead in new loans
- Reports of biased lending unfair, black bankers told
- Banks to offer $20 million in low-interest home loans
- Black clergy push plan to leave white banks
- ACORN fights merger plan by Bank South
- Blacks start move to support minority banks
- Bank South announces plan to reverse inequities on Southside
- 1st American changes service on Southside
- Bank South's $5 million promise appeases ACORN
- Federal study finds bias in lending across nation
- Atlanta among 20 worst cities in loan inequities
- Bank bill OK'd after 16 hours of debate
- Feds: Banks reject more black loans
- Federal bank regulators respond to "The Color of Money"
- Banks' business brisk in new home loans, but regulators wary
- Comparing the loan pools
- Special loans are open to all homebuyers
- Bank's plan to close branch In West End draws criticism
- Bank officials reconsider closing West End branch
- Suit accuses bank of foreclosure fraud
- Bank South calls lawsuit alleging fraud "groundless, frivolous"
- Lone banker takes heat at a hearing on loans
- Bank sticks by plan to shut branch
- Citicorp skips over real estate agents in black areas
- Sound of demolition is music to Cabbagetown ears
- Blacks invited into Citicorp loan program
- Black agents file suit alleging Realtors' rule biased against blacks
- Bank "adopts" neighborhood in new program for Southside
- Blacks turned down for home loans from S&Ls twice as often as whites
- Racial lending gap less in South than Midwest
- Congressman urges federal probe of racial lending gap
- Arrington's fair-lending report is late
- Lending panel issues report, urges reforms
- Mortgage workshop draws 550 potential homebuyers
- First Union to facilitate minority business loans
- Atlanta banks surprised to be focus of U.S. redlining probe
- Home loan program gets "mixed" review
- Home loan pool: wish come true for some blacks
- Senators give a lecture to U.S. bank regulators on bias in home loans
- Editorials, guest commentaries and letters to the editor:
- Redlining: an economic war waged on black communities
- If it's not redlining, prove it
- Redliners should do business fairly, or not at all
- Whites are being hurt too by banks' loan practices
- Who called bank boycott? Bond, singlehandedly
- Banks act swiftly to close lending gap in black areas
- Commentary: Chicago bank did it, so can Atlanta
- Boycott a redlining bank? I wouldn't dream of it
- In Atlanta and in Detroit, bankers need to reinvest
- Redlining banks may get a taste of competition
- Commentary: Charges of redlining have little foundation in fact
- Commentary: Economist's criticisms of redlining series don't hold up
- The case of the elusive mortgages
- Lending bias dashes the dream
- Why is fair-lending report still being delayed
- Let Atlanta bank on fair lending
- Redlining probe should not be limited to Atlanta
- The legacy of redlining lives on
- Letters to the editor
Copyright
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Reprinted with permission from The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution. Further reproduction, retransmission or distribution of these materials without the prior written consent of The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, and any copyright holder identified in the material's copyright notice, is prohibited.
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