The NAACP recently sued two of the country’s largest lenders for alleged systematic discriminatory practices against African-Americans. According to the NAACP, blacks were 30 percent more likely to get a subprime loan than whites with similar credentials. Family Properties: Race, Real Estate, and the Exploitation of Black Urban America by Beryl Satter recounts her father’s fight against the exploitative lending practice known as contract selling. Beryl tells more about the conditions that led to contract selling in her neighborhood, Lawndale.

Music Button: Clutchy Hopkins, “Percy On The One”, from the CD Walking Backwards, (Ubiquity records)