The Supreme Court rules in Hills v. Gautreaux that metropolitan-wide remedies are permissible for housing discrimination, distinguishing the case from its Milliken v. Bradley school desegregation decision that limited remedies to municipal boundaries. Justice Potter Stewart’s opinion finds …
U.S. Supreme CourtJustice Potter StewartU.S. Department of Housing and Urban DevelopmentChicago Housing AuthorityLeadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communitiesinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
Court-ordered school desegregation begins in Boston amid massive white violence and resistance, shattering illusions that Northern cities differ from Southern segregation. Following Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.’s June 1974 ruling in Morgan v. Hennigan that Boston School Committee …
Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr.Louise Day HicksRestore Our Alienated RightsBoston School Committeeinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policyeducation-policy
The Supreme Court issues a 7-2 decision in Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co., holding that Congress can regulate private property sales to prevent racial discrimination under the Thirteenth Amendment’s power to eliminate “badges and incidents of slavery.” The case centers on Joseph Lee …
U.S. Supreme CourtJoseph Lee JonesAlfred H. Mayer Companyinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
Dorothy Gautreaux, a community organizer and resident of the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on Chicago’s South Side, becomes lead plaintiff in a landmark class-action lawsuit filed by six Black tenants with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. The suit alleges that the Chicago …
Dorothy GautreauxChicago Housing AuthorityAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
President Truman signs the Housing Act of 1949, establishing the Title I Urban Renewal Program that provides federal grants to local governments for slum clearance and redevelopment. While the act sets a goal of ensuring “a suitable home and decent living environment for all Americans,” …
U.S. CongressPresident Harry TrumanLocal Redevelopment Agenciesinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policyeconomic-strategy
The Supreme Court issues a unanimous 6-0 decision in Shelley v. Kraemer, holding that racially restrictive housing covenants cannot be judicially enforced without violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case arises when Louis Kraemer sues to prevent the Shelley family, …
U.S. Supreme CourtChief Justice Fred VinsonNAACP Legal Defense Fundinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policylegal-resistance
Levittown, regarded as America’s first modern planned suburb, opens on Long Island to accommodate returning World War II veterans with “Clause 25” in housing agreements explicitly forbidding homes “from being used or occupied by any person other than members of the Caucasian …
William LevittLevitt & SonsFederal Housing AdministrationVeterans Administrationinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policysystematic-corruption
The Federal Housing Administration publishes its Underwriting Manual, which establishes formal mortgage lending requirements that institutionalize racism and segregation within the housing industry. The manual emphasizes the negative impact of “infiltration of inharmonious racial groups” …
Federal Housing AdministrationU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policysystematic-corruption
The National Housing Act creates the Federal Housing Administration, which immediately implements systematic racial discrimination through mortgage underwriting guidelines. From its first operations in 1934, FHA staff conclude that no loan could be economically sound if the property was located in a …
Federal Housing AdministrationFederal Home Loan Bank BoardU.S. Chamber of Commerceinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policysystematic-corruption
President Roosevelt signs the Home Owners’ Loan Act, creating the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) as an emergency response to the mortgage crisis of the Great Depression. Between 1933 and 1936, HOLC refinances approximately one million mortgages (one-tenth of all urban homes with …
Home Owners' Loan CorporationFranklin D. RooseveltFederal Home Loan Bank BoardReal estate appraisersinstitutional-captureracial-oppressionhousing-policyeconomic-strategyhousing
Missouri became the 24th state on August 10, 1821, after Congress resolved a constitutional crisis over the state’s attempt to exclude free Black citizens. The original Missouri Compromise of March 1820 had admitted Missouri as a slave state paired with Maine as a free state, drawing a line at …
CongressJames MonroeHenry ClayDaniel Pope CookWilliam Lowndesinstitutional-capturesystematic-corruptionslave-powerracial-oppressiondemocratic-erosion