I recently attended a gathering of 100 people at the University Club of Chicago on 12.10.25 to celebrate the 50-year anniversary of the passage of the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), a federal statute that was instrumental in combating race discrimination in lending by financial institutions.
The societal problem of discrimination in mortgage lending against people of color in America plagued the country for most of the 20th century.
From 1972 through 1975 the efforts of Saul Alinsky trained community organizers led to the passage of the HMDA. These grassroot community efforts started in Chicago and spread to other major cities in the US and legislative efforts soon followed, again starting in Illinois and spreading nationally.
I was privileged to be involved in that foundation for HMDA in two ways: first as a staff member for Senator Adlai Stevenson III of Illinois and later for Governor Dan Walker of Illinois as the Director of the Governor’s blue-ribbon commission to combat redlining of segregated and racial changing neighborhoods in Chicago and its suburbs.
I recommended to Senator Stevenson that he oppose the application of South Shore Community Bank to move out of South Shore, a racially changing integrated community south of the University of Chicago. He opposed that move. The move also was opposed by federal regulators. The result of that was that the bank was sold to a new group of investors that named it Shore Bank. It became a model for community banking responsive to community needs for over thirty years.
Governor Walker’s Commission on Mortgage Practices brought together 16 representatives from financial institutions and community organizations to study the redlining problem and propose legislative solutions. The work of that Commission in 1974-1975 and the backing of the Governor led to the passage of two ground-breaking Illinois laws to prohibit redlining by financial institutions. These were the first state laws to remedy this problem in the nation.
I worked with two Democratic state reps and the Legislative Reference Bureau in Springfield to draft the two laws that were passed.
While the Commission was doing its work, Senator William Proxmire (WI) took up the cause. I was called by Robert Kuttner, Proxmire’s top aide on these issues, to brief him on what our investigation was finding and what solutions we were going to recommend.
I told him that the first priority was to get a federal law that required financial institutions to disclose by zip code where they were giving mortgage loans. That idea became the HMDA. That idea, Proxmire’s leadership and the political pressure generated by effective community organizing around the issue nationally led to the passage of HMDA in 1975. President Gerald Ford signed the bill into law.
Since that time the detailed disclosure data required by that law has produced a wealth of financial data available to show the public where financial institutions are making loans and whether the race of applicants is a determining factor. Government regulators, the press, academics, non-profit think tanks and citizens have used this hard data to encourage community reinvestment and stop discriminatory lending practices.
It was an exciting time to be involved in this investigation and policy development at the state and national level. HMDA was born in Chicago. It also was a time when you felt you could change society for the better by educating the populace and building coalitions that led to new federal regulations.
I am proud to have been part of the process, and I am pleased to trumpet HMDA’s 50th birthday.
