Housing
How the Fair Housing Act Failed Black Homeowners
In cities like Jacksonville and St. Louis, maps of mortgage approvals and home values in black neighborhoods look the same as they did decades ago, before the passage of the landmark fair housing law.
“Sue the bastards.”
That was the slogan adopted by the National Neighbors advocacy campaign for fair housing in 1970, two years after Congress passed the Fair Housing Act. At long last, black home buyers and renters were able to seek and find justice in the courts, in part because it was possible to demonstrate racially discriminatory practices among landlords and real-estate companies. President Donald Trump made his public debut in 1973 as just such a landlord, sued by the Department of Justice for discriminating against black tenants.