Gale Cincotta

Gale Cincotta (December 28, 1929 – August 15, 2001), a community activist from the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, led the national fight for the US federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977.^[1] The CRA requires banks and savings and loans to offer credit throughout their entire market areas and prohibits them from targeting only wealthier neighborhoods with their lending and services, a practice known as redlining. She was a co-founder with Shel Trapp of the National People's Action in Chicago, a coalition of some 300 community organizations throughout the United States, and served as its executive director and chairperson from 1973 until her death in 2001.

Notes

References

• Douglas Martin, "Gale Cincotta, 72, Opponent of Biased Banking Policies," Obituaries, New York Times, August 12, 2001, p. A19.
• Julie Patel, "Gale Cincotta, 72, Longtime Community Activist," Obituaries, Chicago Sun-Times, August 16, 2001.
• Jeff Bailey, "Unlikely Activist Gets Chicago Banks to Give Loans in Poor Sections," Wall Street Journal, August 21, 1985, pp. A1, 16.
• Anne Witte Garland, "Gale Cincotta, 'We Found the Enemy,'" in Women Activists: Challenging the Abuse of Power (New York: The Feminist Press, 1988), pp. 38-55.
• Patrick Berry, "Gale Cincotta and Heather Booth," in After Alinsky: Community Organizing in Illinois, edited by Peg Knoepfle (Springfield: Sangamon State University, 1990), pp. 54-60.
• Gale Cincotta, "The Fight Against Redlining: Remembering the First 'Bank-In,'" The Workbook, Vol. 19, N0. 2 (Summer 1994). pp. 66-67.
• Michael Westgate, Gale Force: Gale Cincotta: The Battles for Disclosure and Community Reinvestment, 404 pages, published by Harvard Bookstore, 2011