A symbolic reminder of Detroit’s history of segregation served as a fitting backdrop for Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren to pitch her plan for housing equity.

The Massachusetts U.S. Senator visited the Detroit 8 Mile wall, which was built to separate homes planned for middle-class white families from black families in the 1940s, in a video published on Twitter Wednesday. Warren said discriminatory housing practices is part of the “American legacy," and needs to be addressed so all families have an equal chance of owning a home.

The federal government established mortgage underwriting standards that approved housing subsidies at lower rates for racial minorities compared to whites. The practice was made illegal by the Fair Housing Act of 1968, but the gap between white and black homeownership rates remains the same in 2018.

According to a 2019 U.S. Census Bureau report, 73% of white Americans own a home, compared to 41% of black Americans. Warren’s housing plan calls the gap in homeownership a “moral stain” on the country.

“We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen, because it continues to have effects today," Warren said.

America needs to face the things we’ve done wrong and take steps towards making it right. My housing plan creates a first-of-its-kind down-payment assistance program to help Black and Brown families living in formerly redlined neighborhoods buy a home. pic.twitter.com/WL9FXFTHLh — Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) June 20, 2019

Warren proposes providing down-payment assistance to first-time home buyers who live in formerly segregated neighborhoods. The grants would subsidize home-ownership for low-income black families, something Warren said the federal government failed to do decades ago.

“The consequence of that: Generation after generation after generation, a lot of working white families had a chance to build wealth and a whole fewer black families had that chance,” she said.

Homeownership is the number one way that working families middle class build real wealth, Warren said. She wants to help renters purchase their first home and “get in the game, because America needs to face up to the things we’ve done wrong and we got to start making some steps toward making it right."

A section of a half-mile long concrete wall, six feet tall and a foot or so thick, now covered with murals, built in the 1940s is shown in Detroit, March 28, 2013. The wall was built with a simple aim: separate homes planned for middle-class whites from blacks who had already built small houses or owned land with plans to build in the neighborhood.It couldn't separate people on its own, people and policies would see to that, but it was enough to satisfy the Federal Housing Administration to approve and back loans. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) APAP

Warren’s housing plan includes an expansive bill she reintroduced in the Senate earlier this year. It would invest $500 billion in various federal housing funds to build new affordable housing units and rehabilitate exciting units.

According to an independent analysis of the legislation by Moody’s Analytics, the bill would build or rehabilitate about 3 million housing units over the next decade, create 1.5 million new jobs and bring down rents for lower-income and middle-class families by 10%.

Warren’s American Housing and Economic Mobility Act is designed to be deficit neutral, largely paid for by reforms to the estate tax. The remainder of the cost of the legislation will be paid for by the tax revenues generated by the additional home building and other economic activity.

Fellow Democratic primary contender U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., endorsed Warren’s bill, saying it would help fix unfair policies that drive up the cost of housing. It was also endorsed by U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit.

The half-mile long wall still stands in the Wyoming neighborhood on Detroit’s northwest side, but sections were painted over with colorful murals by residents and community activists.

Warren visited Detroit on June 4 for a campaign rally. Roughly 500 enthusiastic supporters and undecided voters gathered in the workforce development wing of a Detroit human rights nonprofit to hear Warren’s message for Michigan.

Warren is among nearly two dozen Democrats running for their party’s nomination for president. She will share the stage with nine other candidates during the first Democratic National Committee debate on June 26 in Miami, followed by a second night of debates with 10 more candidates on June 27.

Other Democrats who campaigned in Michigan include U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J.; Kamala Harris, D-Calif.; Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; as well as U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio; former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas; former housing secretary Julian Castro; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; author Marianne Williamson; businessman Andrew Yang and Gillibrand.