There is an apocryphal story in my family about how my Black, West Indian grandparents couldn’t purchase a home in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley where they were renters. As the story goes, the White family my grandmother worked for bought the house with my grandparent’s money and later transferred the house to them. There are some holes in this story, but it wouldn’t be unheard of in New York, or most of the United States, in the first half of the 20th century. As a documented map geek and data detective of sorts, I was intrigued to find out more about how this played out across the country.

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