Desegregation - Residential Desegregation

Residential Desegregation

The practice of segregating and discriminating in housing opportunity based on race has a long history in the United States. Up until the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, segregated neighborhoods were enforceable by law. The Fair Housing Act, which was the first national law to outlaw housing discrimination, ended discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, color, religion, and national origin. The passage of the Act was contentious. The Fair Housing Act was meant to be a direct follow up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however from 1966 to 1967 Congress failed to garner enough political support for its passage. At that time several states had passed their own fair housing laws and Congress was not convinced that a federal law was necessary. It was only after the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968 and the ensuing riots that Congress finally passed the bill. It was signed into law on April 11, 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. Johnson, who was one of the Act's strongest supporters, called the new law one of the "promises of a century… it proclaims that fair housing for all—all human beings who live in this country—is now a part of the American way of life." Since the act was first passed in 1968 it has been amended to include sex, familial status, and disability. The Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity within the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is charged with administering and enforcing this law.