Another chapter in the foreclosure crisis: cities start fighting the targeting of Black homeowners.(NEWS)

BALTIMORE FILED the first lawsuit in federal court where a city is accusing Wells Fargo, one of the nation's largest financial institutions, of predatory lending practices in violation of the Fair Housing Act. Three days after Baltimore's action in January, Cleveland also filed suit against 21 major financial institutions, charging the corporations with creating a public nuisance through subprime lending practices that have decimated already struggling city neighborhoods. In the national hysteria surrounding the subprime mortgage crisis, these lawsuits expose another chapter in the long history of racial discrimination in the housing and mortgage industry.

Ironically, the lawsuits come on the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act, which was passed to outlaw discriminatory housing practices and was followed by the Federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975. Both laws were designed to prevent redlining, the practice of denying or arbitrarily altering mortgages in a way that made it almost impossible for people of color to get a mortgage on fair terms. Today, Baltimore officials and advocates are decrying a practice of "reverse redlining," where people of color are not denied but rather targeted for predatory mortgage practices, making entire sections of the city in danger of foreclosure.

Individuals have brought lawsuits against lenders before under the Fair Housing Act and won, but Baltimore's suit is the first ...