Gale Cincotta

Who was Gale Cincotta?

Gale Cincotta, a community activist from the Austin neighborhood of Chicago, led the national fight for the US federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. 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.