Who Gets the Future? Digital Redlining in the Black Rural South

By Jasmine Davenport, Senior Director of Green For All

Growing up in Monroe, Louisiana, I learned early that where you lived quietly factored into what doors were easier (or harder) to open. Long before we had language like “digital equity” or “broadband gaps,” I saw how opportunity, investment and digital infrastructure were unevenly distributed, often depending on what side of town you lived in.  Now that I’m raising my family in Howard County, Maryland, one of the most affluent and highly educated counties in America, the contrast is stark. Reliable internet access is no longer a luxury , but an expected foundation for safety, stability, and opportunity. 

The Digital Divide in the Black Rural South

About 1 in 3 households in the Black Rural South lack access to the internet, nearly twice the rate of their White and Asian counterparts. Digital disinvestment in rural communities like my hometown, Monroe, deepens racial and economic barriers to education, jobs, healthcare, and community resources. Once the COVID-19 pandemic peaked, this digital divide became even more obvious. As technology rapidly evolves, we are still working to keep these communities from being left further behind.

How Housing Redlining Became Digital Redlining

In the 1930s, the housing industry built the blueprint for systemic infrastructure discrimination with maps that dictated which neighborhoods could be approved for home loans or insurance and which could not. Black neighborhoods were marked “hazardous,” and disproportionately denied access to resources to help them become homeowners, build stability, and ultimately create generational wealth.

These redlined Black neighborhoods often faced environmental harms too, like pollution and poor air quality. In 2026, we see the same playbook in action: underinvestment in digital infrastructure across rural Black, Brown, and low-income communities, alongside overinvestment in hyperscale data centers that eat up local resources, offer few jobs, and pollute the air in those same neighborhoods.

“I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” 

In 1932, President Franklin Roosevelt spoke these words while accepting the Democratic presidential nomination. Over the next few years, he implemented the New Deal, a series of programs that provided relief for the poor and unemployed, economic recovery, and financial reform. Although the New Deal expanded opportunity for many Americans, it also institutionalized racial exclusion for many others. The housing industry, for example, standardized redlining policies that discriminated against Black families through the deliberate denial of resources. Where the housing industry once prioritized development is where the internet industry prioritizes it today.

Charlotte: A Tale of Two Cities

Charlotte, North Carolina, is a growing hub attracting many young Black professionals and families who often relocate from large coastal cities or nearby rural areas. It’s ranked No. 2 in the country for Black entrepreneurship, with growing economic mobility for Black residents. Although the city is in a growth surge, the impact of digital redlining persists. Even after the region established the country’s first Office of Digital Equity and Literacy in 2021, nearly 56,000 households in Mecklenburg County still do not have internet access. 

At the same time, Charlotte and neighboring cities are seeing a data center boom that’s hidden in plain sight with a severe lack of public disclosure on where and how these warehouses are built. The energy demand of the projected 30 data centers across the Carolinas could more than double the region’s current energy needs. This tale of two-cities, one of expansion and resource exhaustion, is partially why Dream.Org launched the Green Reentry Incubator, to ensure our most vulnerable justice-impacted communities are not left behind and to help them become part of the clean energy solutions we need.

Charlotte is just one example of many places across the Black Rural South. The same communities that were redlined under Roosevelt's New Deal, are still the hardest hit by a lack of digital access, the excessive use of local resources, and environmental pollution all at once. The neglect of these communities must be replaced by responsible, clean innovation that creates opportunity rather than shrinking it.

Innovation Should Expand Opportunity, Not Decide Who Gets It

Equal access means being able to plug in and build a sustainable life where you are, not just where investment decides to land. Anything less isn’t innovation. It’s exclusion. That’s why at Dream.Org, we fight for second chances and systems that don’t leave people behind. We fight for everyone in America to have equal access to the American dream. Because innovation should expand opportunity, not decide who gets it.