Blog Viewer

The History of the Fair Housing Act

By Missouri REALTORS posted 01-31-2023 02:29 PM

  

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968

As REALTORS®, the Fair Housing Act is a commitment to upholding fair housing law. It’s the promise to serve each and every client equally, regardless of race, color, sex, religion, disability, familial status and national origin. It’s the foundation for an equitable, inclusive American Dream of homeownership. Most importantly, it’s a concept that REALTORS® must fully understand the history of in order to actively promote fair housing in their daily work.

As we celebrate Black History Month, let’s acknowledge the history of housing discrimination and recognize the importance of the Fair Housing Act.

The Birth of Redlining

Decades before the introduction of the Fair Housing Act, the federal government, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, established the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) in an effort to provide lifelines to one million struggling homeowners nearing foreclosure. It was one of many government programs aimed at getting Americans back on their feet amidst the Great Depression.

The HOLC, however, evaluated lending risk and distributed aid based on a neighborhood’s socioeconomic status. With the assistance of REALTORS®, the HOLC created “residential security maps”, or a coded system to distinguish the “least risky” from the “most risky” American neighborhoods. 

This practice proved to be racist and discriminatory. In creating these maps, the HOLC deemed predominantly non-white communities as “hazardous,” which led to excessive redlining and minimal federal support to communities of color, especially black communities. The HOLC, although disbanded 3 years later, promoted residential segregation and further divided the wealth gap between white and black Americans.

The Civil Rights Movement

This racial segregation and discrimination persisted. But in the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement brought social justice reform to the center of public discourse. Activists and leaders organized grassroots protests, sit-ins, boycotts, and marches. And by the late 1950s and early 1960s, the movement had made substantial legislative progress.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 most notably banned public segregation and employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Although this piece of legislation is often viewed as the most important achievement of the Civil Rights era, lawmakers rejected any mention of fair housing.

Even the National Association of REALTORS® opposed fair housing legislation at the time. According to a 2018 NAR blog post, “Many factors played into NAR’s resistance: historic prejudice, the belief that property values were more stable if neighborhoods were occupied by the same racial/social classes, and the argument that people should be free to refuse to sell or rent a home to anyone for any reason — even if the decision was based on race.”

In the years to follow, Congress failed a number of times in achieving a majority vote on fair housing legislation.

The Fair Housing Act

The assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, changed the trajectory of the Fair Housing Act and finally set Congress in motion.

President Lyndon B. Johnson honored the Civil Rights Movement leader by urging Congress to swiftly pass the Fair Housing Act before his funeral date. After all, Dr. King organized open housing marches in Chicago and regularly advocated for fair housing law. Thus, President Johnson viewed the legislation as an appropriate tribute to King’s life and legacy.

Just one week after Dr. King’s assassination, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. This included the Fair Housing Actlegislation that officially banned housing discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, familial status, and national origin in the United States. 

The Fair Housing Act Today

To say the Fair Housing Act effectively erased all housing discrimination and residential segregation would be naïve. Although it outlawed these practices, we are still working to completely eliminate prejudice from the real estate industry. With every single Missouri REALTOR® dedicated to fair housing, the future is promising and we are one step closer to an equitable, inclusive American Dream of homeownership. 

Fair housing in Missouri starts with its REALTORS®

Sources:

  1. The History Channel
  2. The National Association of REALTORS® 
  3. The United State Department of Justice 
0 comments
11 views

Permalink