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| Housing |
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Segregated
housing had
been
a
reality
of
US
life
before
since
the
Reconstructions
era.
Despite
legislating
property
rights
for
African
Americans
in
1866,
the
federal
government
could
not
control
the
management
of
private
property
and
discrimination
against
black
tenants
and
home-buyers
was
rampant.
White
realtors
and
home
owners
were
known
to
refuse
to
sell
or
rent
to
non-white
persons
in
order
to
keep
the
neighborhood
all
white.
This
meant
it
was
difficult,
if
not
impossible,
for
non-whites
to
buy
or
rent
in
neighborhoods
of
their
choice.
Discrimination
tactics
It
was
common
for
lenders
to
use
special
application
forms
to
denote
the
identity
of
the
applicant.
Applications
from "people
of
color" were
often
marked
with
a "c" in
one
of
the
upper
corners
so
the
loan
committee
would
know
who
they
were
dealing
with.
Applications
from
women
were
often
taken
on
pink
paper. Loan
officers
relied
on
the
property
evaluations
of
appraisers
who
had
been
trained
to
take
into
account
the
type
of
people
living
in
the
neighborhood
to
determine
property
value.
People
of
northern
European
heritage
were
value
enhancers
for
their
neighborhood.
However,
people
of
any
color
-
and
particularly
those
whose
ancestors
came
from
south
of
the
Equator
-
detracted
from
the
property
value. |
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Redlining
Prior
to the enactment of the law, some lending institutions
would "red-line" specific area's mapped out in
cities and refuse to loan to those high risk area's
based on where the minorities lived. Those lending
practices that constitute arbitrary denials of
financing based upon geographic location, racial
or ethnic considerations, or any consideration
which is not justified on the basis of legitimate,
demonstrable, economic criteria. (Some redlining
practices included requiring higher down payments
than usual, charging higher interest rates than
on most mortgages, and refusing to grant a mortgage
below certain amounts thus making it impossible
to borrow to purchase a home in a neighborhood
with lower priced properties.) To further prevent
incidents of redlining, Congress passed the Federal
Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in 1975
Blockbusting & Steering
Steering
is when a real estate representative directs
or "steer's" prospective
minority purchasers to specific area's of the
city where their ethnic or racial color is primarily
living. Blockbusting is similar in that it is
illegal for to induce property owners to sell their
property by saying or implying that other people
of a specific race, color, sex, religion or national
origin are moving into the area
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination
The assasination of Dr. King became
a tragic motivation for the speedy passage of
the Fair Housing Act. President Lyndon Johnson
utilized this national tragedy to urge for the
bill's speedy Congressional approval. Since the
1966 open housing marches in Chicago , Dr. King's
name had been closely associated with the fair
housing legislation. President Johnson viewed
the Act as a fitting memorial to the man's life
work, and wished to have the Act passed prior
to Dr. King's funeral in Atlanta.
The Fair Housing Act
Passed
as Title VIII., a part of the Civil Rights Act
of 1968, this legislation put the issues of race
and housing into federal law for the first time
since Reconstruction. The act made it illegal to
engage in any type of discriminatory housing practices.
This includes refusing to rent or sell to any one
of the basis of race (it has since been expanded
to include religion, nationality, gender, family
status or disability). Evidence of a "pattern or
practice of segregation" in lending money, renting,
buying constituted a violation of the Act and could
be prosecuted by the Dept. of Justice. (Dept. of
Justice website, Housing and Civil Enforcement
Section)
Continued Segregation
African
Americans continue to be disproportionately represented
in inner city housing. In the years that followed
the Fair Housing Act, suburbanization perpetuated
segregated housing as whites increasingly moved
out; leaving the inner city to African Americans-a
trend that persists to this day. The 1968 legislation
has been strengthened by the addition of the Equal
Credit Opportunity Act. |
| References & Additional
Resources |
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Books
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 Massey,
Douglas S. and Denton, Nancy A. 1998. American
Apartheid : Segregation and the Making
of the Underclass. Harvard University
Press.
A major contribution
to our understanding of both racism and
poverty. One hopes that the book will be
read, not only by other scholars and policy
analysts, but by a broad spectrum of citizens
and by all the leaders of the nation. (Andrew
Billingsley, Washington Post Book World) |
Boyle,
Kevin. 2004. Arc
of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil
Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age.
NY: Henry Holt.
History professor Boyle has brilliantly
rescued from obscurity a fascinating
chapter in American history that
had profound implications for the
rise of the Civil Rights movement.
With a novelist's craft, Boyle opens
with a compelling prologue portraying
the migration of African Americans
in the 1920s to the industrial cities
of the North, where they sought a
better life and economic opportunity.
This stirring section, with echoes
of Dickens's Hard Times, sets the
stage for the ordeal of Dr. Ossian
Sweet, who moves with his young family
to a previously all-white Detroit
neighborhood. When the local block
association incites a mob to drive
Sweet back to the ghetto, he gathers
friends and acquaintances to defend
his new home with a deadly arsenal.
The resulting shooting death of a
white man leads to a sensational
murder trial, featuring the legendary
Clarence Darrow, fresh from the Scopes
Monkey trial, defending Sweet, his
family and their associates. This
popular history, which explores the
politics of racism and the internecine
battles within the nascent Civil
Rights movement, grips right up to
the stunning jaw-dropper of an ending. (From
Publishers Weekley)
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Websites
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http://www.metrokc.gov/dias/ocre/history.htm A very nice brief history of housing discrimination
in the US, from the Civil Rights Act of 1866
passed by the Reconstruction Congress in
1866. This page is very accessible and has
some interesting leads to other avenues of
investigation. |
| http://comm-org.utoledo.edu/papers2002/yates/home.htm An
extensive history of housing issues in the
US . Although it does not exclusively focus
on race, race is one of the many variables
the site analyzes (class, government programs,
white flight, the development of urban ghettos).
It does a nice job of tying together disparate
variables like trends in home ownership, post-war
economic boom, and financing patterns. |
| http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/housing/housing_coverage.htm Explains what the Fair Housing
Act means and how it
is enforced. |
| http://www.hud.gov/offices/fheo/FHLaws/yourrights.cfm
Has
links to the text of the Fair Housing Act of
1968 as well as other amendments that have
been passed since then. Protective clauses
include not just race-based discriminations
but discriminations based on gender, nationality,
age and disability. There is even a special
housing update on post-9/11 discrimination
against Muslims and persons of Middle Eastern
descent. |
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[Last
updated on
August 6, 2005
]
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