norities (Schiller 100). This latter practice is known as "redlining."
In 1977, the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) became law. The CRA deals with two of the specific issues of overriding interest in the equal opportunity area--equal access to housing, and equal access to credit (Canner, Smith, Bowen, Benkovic, Freeland, Johnson, Orndorff, and Schultz 876). The CRA was, in 1977, the latest in a series of federal laws designed to attack the problems of unequal access to credit that were confronting some segments of the American population. The CRA was related to these other laws, but the act and its provisions were specifically designed to deal with the problems related to mortgage and business lending, to establish guidelines for bankers, and to provide a mechanism for public review and protest (Canner, Smith, Bowen, Benkovic, Freeland, Johnson, Orndorff, and Schultz 876).
Public concerns related to equal opportunity in housing and credit ranged from the ability of some groups to obtain housing and credit in certain areas to the ability of members of many of these same groups to obtain financing for either housing or business in areas where it was accessible to them. This type of loan policy or practice constituted open discrimination, and, as such, was somewhat more easily dealt with on a legal plane, if not in actual practice than were some other forms of discrimination.
The CRA, therefore, is a component of that group of equal opportunity legislation that addresses problems related to housing and credit. The first of the laws comprising this component of the equal opportunity legislation was the Fair Housing Act, which was actually Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act enacted in 1968. The Fair Housing Act is an open housing law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin. This act was intended to halt the practice of denying access to housing (either purchase or rental) on t...