[1] 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.
[7] In 1952, Cincotta made the decision to send her children to Chicago Public Schools, and as they matriculated, she became increasingly displeased with the quality of their education.
Her activism branched from direct involvement with her children's schools to local movements for fairer financial practices.
As the director of NPA, in addition to using formal channels of communication to reach politicians and bureaucrats, she organized "hits."
[14][15] According to a statement by the NTIC, "At protests, Ms. Cincotta would alternately schmooze and threaten her targets, until they conceded the meetings she demanded.
"[15] NPA led the national push for the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA), which Cincotta and Trapp helped draft.
[16] According to Senator William Proxmire, HMDA "would never have become a law but for the research and local organizing activity undertaken by NPA.
[18] Of Cincotta, Kemp said she was "one of the most substantive and knowledgeable leaders in low- and moderate-income housing that I have met in the country.