Black-White Wealth Gap Widens During Postwar Prosperity as Black Families Excluded

The postwar economic boom of 1945-1960 dramatically widens the racial wealth gap. White families build equity through subsidized homeownership in appreciating suburbs; Black families are confined to rental housing or exploitative contract purchases in depreciating urban neighborhoods. The GI Bill's exclusion of Black veterans denies them education and mortgage benefits that transform white working-class families into middle class. Between 1940 and 1960, median white family wealth grows 70 percent while Black family wealth grows far less. By 1963, the median white family has seven times the wealth of the median Black family.