| Course | MSW 549 Structural Inequality in Race, Class, and Gender |
|---|---|
| Week | 3 |
| Paper type | Redlining case study |
| Length | About 540 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 549 Week 3
Redlining Case Study of Wichita Area D8 in 1937 and Census Tract 1 Now: One Outline Held Fixed, the Surveyor's Words as a Lending Instruction, How the Old Boundary Was Matched to a 2020 Tract and What the Comparison Can and Cannot Claim
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 549: Structural Inequality in Race, Class, and Gender
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Redlining Case Study of Wichita Area D8 in 1937 and Census Tract 1 Now: One Outline Held Fixed, the Surveyor's Words as a Lending Instruction, How the Old Boundary Was Matched to a 2020 Tract and What the Comparison Can and Cannot Claim
One Outline, Held Fixed
This study follows one area on the Home Owners' Loan Corporation security map of Wichita, Kansas: area D8, graded D, "Hazardous," in the area description dated May 18, 1937 (Nelson et al., 2023).
The Written Description as Evidence
The surveyor listed the occupation of residents as "Laborers, Mexicans" and estimated family income at $800 to $1,200. The clarifying remarks say the area adjoins "the packing house, railroad shop, stockyards, and flour mill district" and is "made up entirely of small, ill-kept frame houses occupied by the low grade type of workers," and that "This area contains the Mexican concentration of Wichita." Home ownership was recorded at 46 percent. Mortgage funds for buying or building were "limited," and the trend of desirability was "static to downward."
Read as a Lending Instruction
These words were not commentary. A D grade marked the area as one where lenders should not make long-term mortgage loans, and the description gave the reasons. Research comparing areas on either side of HOLC grade boundaries finds that lower grades were followed by lower homeownership, house values and rents in later decades (Aaronson et al., 2021).
Matching Old Ground to New
I used the published crosswalk that overlays Mapping Inequality polygons on 2020 census tracts. About 98 percent of area D8's mapped surface falls in Census Tract 1, Sedgwick County, and the D8 polygon covers about 92 percent of that tract's area. The remaining slivers of D8 fall in neighboring tracts and are left out; the part of Tract 1 outside D8 is small and is noted as a limit.
The Outline Now
For Tract 1, the Census Bureau's five-year survey covering 2020 through 2024 reports (U.S. Census Bureau, 2025): median household income $48,598 (margin of error plus or minus $13,734); 40.5 percent of occupied homes owner-occupied; median home value $91,100; 86.6 percent of residents Hispanic or Latino.
A Comparison Area, Chosen Openly
I compare with the city of Wichita as a whole, for the same survey years: median household income $64,620; 58.9 percent owner-occupied; median home value $190,800; 19.0 percent Hispanic or Latino. I chose the whole city because it is the market the 1937 map was drawing for.
Claims Kept to the Polygon
Within this outline, homeownership was 46 percent in 1937 and is about 41 percent now, below the city rate by 18 points. Median home value is under half the city's. The Hispanic share of residents is more than four times the city's. This study shows persistence in one place; it does not show that the 1937 grade caused the present figures.
References
Aaronson, D., Hartley, D., & Mazumder, B. (2021). The effects of the 1930s HOLC "redlining" maps. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 13(4), 355-392. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20190414
Nelson, R. K., Winling, L., Marciano, R., & Connolly, N. (2023). Mapping inequality: Redlining in New Deal America. American Panorama. https://dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/redlining
U.S. Census Bureau. (2025). American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, tables B19013, B25003, B25077 and B03002. https://data.census.gov
Reading the MSW 549 Week 3 instructions
The redlining case study rests on two documents and the joining between them. First, the area description for one graded area, with the surveyor's words quoted rather than summarized, since the language is evidence. Second, present-day figures for the same outline. Explain how the historical boundary was matched to present-day units, what share overlaps and what was dropped. Read the description as a lending instruction with consequences, not only as offensive language. Choose a comparison area openly and say why. Keep every claim to the outline you matched. Choose an area because it is well documented, not because it is famous. State the survey release and years for every present-day figure.
How the MSW 549 Week 3 example is put together
The outline section names Wichita area D8, graded D, with a description dated May 18, 1937, citing Nelson et al. (2023). The description section quotes the occupation entry, the income estimate, the clarifying remarks, 46 percent ownership and limited mortgage funds. The lending section cites Aaronson et al. (2021) on later effects of grades. The matching section reports about 98 percent of D8 in Census Tract 1 and D8 covering about 92 percent of that tract. The present section gives income, ownership, home value and Hispanic share from the U.S. Census Bureau (2025). The comparison section gives the city's figures and the reason for choosing it. The final section keeps claims to persistence.
MSW 549 Week 3 rubric: what full points look like
Faculty grade whether the same place is compared across time. A study that reports present-day figures for a shape the historical map never covered loses the most. Credit goes to one documented outline, the surveyor's words quoted, a reading of those words as lending policy, a stated method of matching boundaries with what was dropped, a comparison area chosen openly and claims limited to the polygon. Present-day figures should carry their survey years and margins of error where relevant, and all sources appear in APA form. Claiming that the grade caused present conditions, from one area, is penalized as overreach.
MSW 549 Week 3 help from the desk
Case studies most often slip by choosing a famous area with no local sources. Another frequent gap is matching nothing, so the present-day figures describe a different place. Some papers quote the surveyor's language for shock and then move on without reading it as an instruction to lenders. Others report a figure without its year. If your area spans several tracts, report the share in each and weight the figures or say why you did not. A study that a reader could repeat with the same crosswalk and the same survey release has done the joining this week is about. Keep a short note of the crosswalk file and survey release you used, so a reader could repeat the match.
Get a MSW-549 Week 3 example written to your instructions
Tell us the city or the mapped area your section assigned, or ask for one where the documentary record is known to be complete. A custom case study gets written on that area, with the historical sheet and the present-day figures both sourced and the boundary match set out openly. Returned inside 24 to 48 hours, first one free.
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MSW 549 Week 3 questions, answered
Do I need the original map sheet for my own city?
It helps enormously, and digitized collections of the era's lending maps cover a great many places, area descriptions included. Where nothing survives for your city, sections generally accept a documented area elsewhere rather than a study built on secondary summaries. What you cannot do is describe a grading no document supports, since the whole study rests on being able to show the sheet.
What if the old boundary and the modern one refuse to line up?
Say so, in the paper, with the portion stated. Partial correspondence is normal and reporting it honestly costs nothing, while pretending to an exact fit invites a marker to check. Where the overlap is small, the study narrows what it claims rather than widening the area, and that decision written down usually reads as care rather than as weakness.
Can I write about a city I have never lived in?
Yes. This is a documentary study and residence adds nothing to it. What matters is whether the sheet survives, whether present-day figures are published for a boundary you can align to it, and whether a comparison area exists on the same terms. Local familiarity occasionally helps with street names, and occasionally tempts a writer into claims the record does not carry.
Where can I find a free MSW 549 Week 3 sample paper?
The MSW 549 Week 3 case study of Wichita area D8 in 1937 and Census Tract 1 today appears in full below the facts table.
How does the area compare now in the MSW 549 Week 3 sample?
In the 2020-2024 survey, about 41 percent of homes in the tract are owner-occupied against 59 percent citywide, and the median home value is under half the city's.