Alexis de Tocqueville, in his book Democracy in America, in 1831 described his understanding of the concept of community in this young country. If a member of the community is denied the opportunity to make his or her contribution, not only does that person suffer, but the community suffers as well. We may be in different boats, but we are all afloat on the same lake. Nothing could be more American than the ideal that the community holds a place for everyone. Certainly our ideal of community has had great consequences.
People still come, attracted by the opportunity to build promising lives.
As long as we hold out hope, people will grasp it. Our ideal calls on us to remove the obstacles that prevent other members of the community from finding their places and making their contributions and compels us to create affirmative opportunity for everyone eager to contribute to our society. In that regard, for more than 30 years, we have tried to come to grips with the economic problems of our nation's inner cities and the other areas that have not kept pace with the growth and prosperity of the rest of the nation. The experience has taught us a number of lessons. After pursuing that opportunity, Bank of America discovered that the delinquency and foreclosure rates on its portfolio of mortgages made in lower income neighborhoods were no higher than the rates on home loans for middle and upper income individuals, and were sometimes better.