Cityscape: Volume 19 Number 2 | A Cartographic Perspective on the Correlation Between Redlining and Public Health in Austin, Texas–1951

A Cartographic Perspective on the Correlation Between Redlining and Public Health in Austin, Texas—1951

John C. Huggins
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the official positions or policies of the Office of Policy Development and Research, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or the U.S. government.

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Geographic information systems (GIS) organize and clarify the patterns of human activities on the Earth’s surface and their interaction with each other. GIS data, in the form of maps, can quickly and powerfully convey relationships to policymakers and the public. This department of Cityscape includes maps that convey important housing or community development policy issues or solutions. If you have made such a map and are willing to share it in a future issue of Cityscape, please contact john.c.huggins@hud.gov.

Consequences of historic redlining—the once federally sanctioned denial of services to residents of predominantly non-White neighborhoods—are often measured in terms of structural decay and economic stagnation. However, the effects of redlining are also evident in the health disparities observed between maligned neighborhoods and surrounding communities (Gee, 2008). With this fact in mind, in this article I juxtapose selected historic maps and data in an effort to examine the correlation between redlining and incidence of tuberculosis in 1950s Austin, Texas.