About a year ago the Atlantic published a lengthy and much-discussed article by Ta-Nehisi Coates titled “The Case for Reparations.” One section of the piece struck us as especially compelling. It also reminded us of Hillary Clinton.

Coates described the plight of black Americans who wanted to become homeowners before the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, when a practice called redlining severely limited their ability to get mortgages. The Federal Housing Administration, an agency created during the New Deal, “rated...