Saving while black: from the Freedman's savings bank, to public policy missing in action, to a new downpayment savings product and policy

Reparations would address past injustices and the negative impacts of past and current public policies on Blacks. Moreover, reparations would also address the dearth of Black intergenerational wealth transfer, which determines homeownership prospects, among many other opportunities. Furthermore, reparations might also help in narrowing, and possibly closing, the current economic gap between Blacks and non-Hispanic Whites. Since the end of the Civil War in 1865, US homeownership policies have disproportionately benefited non-Hispanic Whites. Examples of these policies include the Land Grant and Homestead Acts, Home Owners' Loan Corporation, Federal Home Loan Banks, the Federal Housing Administration, the Federal National Mortgage Association, the Veterans Administration Home Loan Program, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp, among others. Only a few US homeownership policies and programs have disproportionately advantaged Blacks, among other races and ethnicities, including the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975, the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, and more recently the Home Affordable Mortgage Program of 2009.