Fair Housing Act Research Paper

On February 8, there was a protest against a white-only bowling alley. It was the “All-Star Bowling Lane” in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and led to the death of 3 college students. One of the most significant civil rights movements would be what dealt with housing issues. Protests about fair housing led to the Fair Housing Act of 1968 that allowed open housing for people of all races. The Black Panthers were also making headway in civil rights on February 17th, 1968. On April 11, 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act; This Act prohibited the discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of houses. This act also reinstated and reinvigorated the African Americans' right to full citizenship.

Whether under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (FHA), which makes it illegal to discriminate in housing on the basis of an individual’s handicap, Ms. Mary Land, the widowed owner, manager, and landlord¬¬ of a historic building with Tiffany stained glass transforms, extinct pinewood flooring, and mahogany woodwork¬, violated the FHA by refusing to rent an apartment to Mr. Jim Rent, a potential paraplegic tenant with acute transverse myelitis (ATM), when enforcing a first-come first-served parking policy, where there are only three allocated spots available to the nine apartments, and a no-pets policy, where Ms. Land had an allergy and a tenant potential could go into anaphylactic shock, where Mr. Rent required access to a dedicated parking spot for his specially-equipped van, which allowed him to use his mobility device the iBOT™, the use of a medical alert response companion dog (MARC dog), that was certified, prescribed, and trained to assist Mr. Rent with his daily routine, and needed to make structural modifications to the apartment and bathroom, in order to insure his mobility and safety in the apartment, even though Mr. Rent, six months prior, had a history of leaving items on the stove, causing fire alarms to go off notifying the fire department, and leaving water running in the bathtub, which lead to several floods of his apartment requiring new flooring and carpeting.

Housing markets segregate black people and their class status in society makes sure it stays that way as well. Lack of education causing lack of reading skills and class position in society made sure that the police and other authorities did not defend minorities, which is why being black meant that you can get exploited by the higher class. “In 2001, the Associated Press published a three-part investigation into the theft of black-owned land stretching back to the antebellum period. The series documented some 406 victims and 24,000 acres of land valued at tens of millions of dollars” (Coates). Many of these occurrences were due to the fact that black people had no reading skills so when legal papers are presented there was no other answer but compliancy.

In order to eliminate the racist perception that Black poverty derives from laziness, the government should allocate public resources to restoring the predominantly African American communities by providing cheaper housing and resources for children. By restoring the communities, Blacks will have more opportunities and be seen more positively, both of which counteract the racist presumption that all African Americans are poor and lazy. Additionally, by making Black communities just as desirable as their white counterparts, the direct correspondence between race and affluence will no longer be as prevalent. As part of a new housing act in 1949, Chicago received funding for new housing projects – 98 percent of which were built in Black neighborhoods.

During the early 1900’s, Louisville attempted to segregate by creating regulations that kept Caucasian people from moving into a neighborhood where most of the minority races were already living and visa versa. They did not want for the races to mix so they created these laws which were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court trial “Buchanan v. Warley”(Broken Sidewalk). This also occurred in other cities but none were as prominent as the commotion created by Louisville. Because of the ruling of the Supreme Court, zonings were created where race was not able to be a reason for granting or denying the right to a house. There were still some places that were denying the sale of houses to blacks because they were in a “restricted housing covenant”. These were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1948, however, they still affected the lives and home sales of these houses that were considered “restricted”. Despite all these efforts, the neighborhoods were still heavily segregated socially and economically. People would only live with others of their same socioeconomic class which president Nixon saw as a big problem. He decided to take action in 1968 when he appointed George Romney the head of Housing and Urban development. George Romney was the governor for Michigan, and he strongly endorsed open housing and the integration of neighborhoods. Romney helped change the demographic of housing across the entire United

For far too long, African Americans have been neglected the rights to decent and fair housing. In “In Darkness and Confusion,” William Jones expresses his discontentment with the almost cruel living conditions of the ghettos in Harlem as he stated, “It ain’t a fit place to live, though” (Petry 261). William was especially motivated to move to a better home to protect his wife, Pink’s, ailing health. William and Pink searched high and low for more decent places to live – however, they simply could not afford decent. Though marketed to those with lower than average incomes, the ‘better’ housing for blacks were still deficient and extremely pricy. In

Rough Draft & Thesis Statement Minorities are faced with housing discrimination on levels much higher than that of white people which is considered white privilege. Residential segregation has been strategically planned and carried out by multiple parties throughout history and persists today ultimately inhibiting minorities from making any of the social or economic advances that come from living in affluent neighborhoods and communities. From our research, the scholarly sources have depicted multiple causes of racial disparity. Housing segregation perpetuates negative circumstances for people of color, as looked at through history, laws, segregation, real estate, and ... The end of the Civil War and the start of the Industrial Revolution and

Many professionals recognize the benefits of assistive animals for people with physical disabilities. This includes seeing-eye dogs that are trained to alert owners to environmental hazards. Some policies may be hard to change, but are required if needed. One well known policy

The readings for this week fall under the umbrella of “Issues in Housing Policy”, more specifically race, discrimination and segregation. Looking at this topic with the naked eye may lead one to conclude that these issues are age-old, but by looking at the occurrences within the housing policy we can very much conclude that these drawbacks still remain and are salient to the present. To begin, the Schwartz piece highlights that housing policies are mandated to condemn the discriminatory practices that plague real estate and mortgage markets, where African-Americans and other minorities are at a “decided disadvantage”. However, the federal laws passed, such as the Fair Housing Act of 1968, prohibiting racial discrimination by real estate

Given evidence of the effect of race on housing issues, even as it relates to home ownership, an exploration of the empirical evidence in how it manifests within rental markets is necessary. One of the leading researchers in the contemporary study of eviction is Matthew Desmond. In “Eviction and the Reproduction of Urban Poverty (2012), he combines statistical and ethnographic analyses to investigate the ramifications of eviction on the lives of the urban poor. The primary independent variable in this study was gender, while the dependent was eviction rates as a percentage. Half of his quantitative analysis involved extracting legal records or court-ordered evictions that took place in Milwaukee County between 2003 to 2007 (n=29,960) (“Eviction and the Reproduction” 91). Using addresses, eviction records were merged with population estimates of Milwaukee’s 880 block groups (“neighborhoods”), and yearly eviction rates for each block group were calculated by gender and pooled to calculate annual averages (Eviction and Reproduction 94). Then risk ratios and differences were determined using 3 different samples: all groups with at least 1 male and female evictee, high poverty block groups where more than 40% of the population lived at or below 150% of the poverty line, and hyper-segregated neighborhoods where at least 85% of residents were same race/ethnicity (Eviction and Reproduction 94). While these measures provided reliable and exact measures of incidence and location,

While social justice may not be at its peak today, times used to be worse. Formerly, while trying to improve cities with zoning- certain races, religions, and peoples were excluded from the nice parts of town and even jobs. Zoning began around 1900 when the local government restricted the height of buildings in Washington District of Columbia. From there, the government realized it could intervene on private property and the people would allow it (Silver, 1997). As zoning evolved, so did the type of zoning- from height restrictions to land use and eventually to redlining. Silver explains the extent situation as, “the nation's planning movement, not just its Southern branch, regarded land use controls as an effective social control mechanism for Blacks and other ‘undesirables’” (p. 2). Unfortunately for the US and for its citizens, racial zoning is not the only undesirable social norm.

Since you were assassinated, many incidents and changes have occurred. First and foremost, your death conveyed somber emotions and rage within the black community. Violence and controversy followed. Outrage at the idea your assassination was partially or fully responsible on the government, riots broke out across the nation the weekend you were murdered. Publish accounts claim nine to eleven people died, however, there was no official death toll. In addition, three hundred fifty people were arrested, and one hundred sixty two buildings were destroyed. In April 11, 1968, following the riots, President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental and financial of housing. Despite the nature of the Fair Housing Act, housing remain segregated in many areas of the United States in the years that followed; however, we have managed to overcome many obstacles since then, and have establish a new system and way of living in many parts of the United States. Although racial inequality still exists in America, it is accurate to say racial equality is much closer than it was when you were alive.

“You have to be twice as good as them to get half of what they have.” Was a famous quote said by Kerry Washington on her hit show Scandal. The quote was said in reference to Kerry having to work twice as hard to get half of what her Caucasian co-workers have. This quote relates to a black person everyday struggle. As a black person, they are constantly competing for equality with their Caucasian counterparts. Equality in things such as the work-force, food industry but more importantly in the housing area. Housing discrimination amongst blacks has been one of the biggest issues in the United States. Because of the discrimination, Blacks still have a greater struggle finding housing more than their equally qualified Caucasian counterparts. The

This left the majority of African Americans, who at the time were being discriminated against with the enforcement of the Jim Crow Laws and were not considered for any opportunities in the metropolitan world, stuck in the overcrowded and hard to maneuver cities abandoned by the white populations (The Washington Post, 2015). To this day, the majority of inner city populations are African American. A 2006 study found that 54% of people in cities are nonwhite, primarily black, and in 2010, Brown University revealed that 90% of black and Latino Americans would need to be displaced in order to create truly racially balanced communities (Washington Post 2015). Despite many obstacles since the beginning of this problem, African Americans have accomplished a fair amount in regards to their average quality of housing, but there is a very long way to

In “1955, King was asked to be a spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott. This was a campaign to try to achieve integration of the city’s bus lines. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional” (Dr. King 1). “In 1957, King was elected the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization designed to provide new leadership for the civil rights movement” (Dr. King 1). In 1963 King led a number of nonviolent campaigns that helped to desegregate Birmingham, Alabama. “Later in 1963, King was one of the driving forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom” (Dr. King 1). “He also won Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year” award in that year” (Dr. King 1). “In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was 35 years old making him the youngest recipient of the award” (Dr. King 1). After the March on Washington, Martin was able to get Congress to pass the Civil rights act, this made it so segregation was illegal. It also made it illegal to discriminate against blacks and other minorities in all aspects including hiring, hotels and other accommodations, education and transportation. “In 1965, Congress went on to pass the Voting Rights Act, which set laws that eliminated the remaining barriers to voting for African-Americans” (Dr. King 2). “Through 1965-1968, King shifted his focus to economic equality which he highlighted by leading