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Black residents began moving to South Bend to work at the Studebaker factory in the 1940s, largely residing in the LaSalle and Kennedy Park neighborhoods. Unfortunately, Studebaker announced its closing in 1963 and completed the process by 1966.9 When looking at the effect of Studebaker’s closing on the LaSalle and Kennedy Park neighborhoods, a decline in median family income and an increase in unemployment continued as residents of Kennedy and LaSalle struggled to find employment in South Bend. Figures 5 and 6, show the decline in median family income and disparity in unemployment, as the mass layoff of workers, specifically Black workers, concluded. Without employment opportunities, neighborhood income continued to experience a sharp but steady decline, while unemployment continued to climb from the 1960 and 1970 era lows. Income from factory work was a primary financial tool of Black residents, while other communities could leverage their institutional relationships and through financing to spur other employment opportunities or at the worker level individuals could simply pivot and utilize their skillsets in other industries, Black residents were either excluded from other industries or exploited forced to make less than their Studebaker wages. While owner occupancy and housing units remained relatively stable in A- or B-graded neighborhoods, residents bleeding out of Kennedy Park and LaSalle Park never ceased, which has likely been a major contributor to declining property values. As estimated in Figure 7, we can deduce from the data that neighborhood-wide equity positions in non-redlined areas have remained relatively stable, while the LaSalle Park neighborhood and Kennedy Park neighborhood have lost 75% and 88% of their equity positions, respectively. Looking at credit scores in South Bend by Census tract (Figure 8), Kennedy and LaSalle Park and neighboring Westside neighborhoods tend to have lower credit scores than neighborhoods on the Eastside. This disparity helps to explain the decision to place the Financial Empowerment Center, providing one-on-one financial counseling, in the newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in 2024, geographically removing barriers for Westside residents to access these financial services. [graph] Figure 7: Estimated Home Equity by Neighborhood 1960-2020 Source: U.S. Census Data, 1960-2020 12 FINANCIAL EMPOWERMENT BLUEPRINT