GI Bill's Exclusion of Black Veterans Built Modern Racial Wealth Gap

The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 (GI Bill) provided veterans with college tuition, low-interest home loans, and business loans. Implementation was delegated to local officials and institutions, which systematically excluded Black veterans: Black veterans were denied low-interest VA home loans through redlined neighborhoods; most HBCUs lacked capacity for all eligible Black veterans while white universities refused to enroll them; vocational training programs placed Black veterans in lower-wage occupations. Of the first 67,000 mortgages issued in New York and New Jersey under the GI Bill, fewer than 100 went to Black veterans. This wealth-building program, estimated to have generated trillions in wealth over generations, largely bypassed Black families.