March 2, 2022
“Inequity for Sale,” an interactive National Public Housing Museum exhibit, opens February 18 in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. (PRNewsfoto/National Public Housing Museum
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National Public Housing Museum Exhibit Explores Englewood’s Land Sale Contracts and Segregation
A groundbreaking exhibition sponsored by the National Public Housing Museum, the nation’s first cultural institution dedicated to interpreting the American public housing experience, sheds new light on an unsavory Chicago real estate practice in the ‘50s and ‘60s: Selling homes to Black families using Land Sale Contracts, which imposed excessive monthly payments on buyers — many of whom lost their properties. LSCs bred segregation and redlining, cheating families out of equity built through home ownership.