December 7, 1972, Standing for Current Tenants

Trafficante v Metropolitan Life Insurance, The U.S. Supreme Court offered important judicial guidance on interpreting the Fair Housing Act, ruling that current tenants in a large apartment complex had standing to sue their landlord for discrimination against minority applicants; it also established four tenets of statutory construction: (1) the statute..Read More

June 17, 1968, Prevention of Racial Discrimination

Jones v. Mayer. A landmark United States Supreme Court case which held that Congress could regulate the sale of private property in order to prevent racial discrimination.

April 11, 1968, The Fair Housing Act

President Johnson signed into law the Fair Housing Act of 1968 as a way to urge unity and peace and quell racial tensions. The law prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, and national origin.

April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Is Assassinated

His murder is the impetus for further rioting and unrest leading to the passage of the Fair Housing Act (FHA).

July 28, 1967, Kerner Commission

Following nationwide “race riots” that had been occurring in Black and Latino neighborhoods between 1965 and 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed what is now popularly known as the Kerner Commission on July 27, 1967, formally known as the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders.

June 12,1967, Federal Ruling Legalizing Interracial Marriage

Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 is a landmark civil rights decision of the United States Supreme Court which struck down all state laws banning interracial marriage.

August 6, 1965, Voting Rights Act

This act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson. It outlawed the discriminatory voting practices adopted in many southern states after the Civil War, including literacy tests as a prerequisite to voting.

July 2, 1964, Civil Rights Act

Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Civil Rights Act is a landmark civil rights and US labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

1962, Equal Opportunity in Housing

Executive Order 11063: Titled “Equal Opportunity in Housing” and issued by President Kennedy prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, or use of all residential property that was owned, operated, or financed by the federal government. It had little impact because it did not provide for enforcement.

1954, Brown vs. Board of Education

Upon realizing that separate does NOT mean equal, the courts overturned Plessy vs. Ferguson and outlawed school segregation.

1943, Immigration Laws

The 1943 immigration laws established a quota on Chinese immigrants (105 a year), which was not lifted until the 1965 Immigration Act.

1936, The Negro Motorist Green Book

Commonly referred to simply as the “Green Book” it was an annual, segregation-era guidebook for African-American motorists, published by Hackensack, New Jersey letter carrier turned New York travel agent Victor H. Green between 1936 and 1966. During the Jim Crow era road trips for African- Americans were fraught with dangers..Read More

1936, Promoting Racial Segregation

Frederick Babcock and Homer Hoyt are credited with establishing the first Underwriting Manual for FHA. The Manual promoted racial segregation touting the use of racially restrictive covenants to guarantee the most “favorable condition” for neighborhoods. The Manual stated that deed restrictions should include a “prohibition of the occupancy of properties..Read More

June 27, 1934, The Federal Housing Administration

From 1934 to 1968, the Federal Housing Administration’s housing policies created the segregated system of housing as we know it. The FHA made homeownership accessible to White people by guaranteeing their loans, but explicitly refused to back loans to Black people or even other people who lived near Black people…Read More

June 13, 1933, The Home Loan Corporation

Established in 1933, this institution helped segregate the United States through housing loans. The HOLC Loan Corporation specified race and immigrant status as considerations, and agency records showed that from 1933 to 1936, the period it was authorized to issue loans, 44% of its help went to areas designated “native..Read More

1933, Racial Housing Hierarchy

Homer Hoyt, the first Principal Housing Economist for the Federal Housing Administration, perfected a system of ranking races and nationalities in order to illustrate their beneficial effect or negative impact on land values with groups more favorable listed at the top (Western Europeans) and groups less favorable being listed at..Read More

1932, The Valuation Of Real Estate

Real estate expert, Frederick M. Babcock, who helped start the Federal Housing Administration, wrote his racist segregationist housing valuation policy in The Valuation of Real Estate. He suggested that declines in property values could be “partially avoided by segregation and this device has always been in common usage in the..Read More

June 2, 1924, Indigenous People Are Granted Citizenship

In spite of the fact that they were here before colonizing Europeans arrived and stole their land, Indigenous people were granted citizenship in the United States in 1924.

1924, Prohibition of Integration

The National Association of Real Estate Board’s Code of Ethics Prohibits Integration. Under Article 34 of Part III of the Code of Ethics, the guiding document for all real estate professionals in the U.S., stated “A Realtor should never be instrumental in introducing into a neighborhood a character of property..Read More

May 18, 1896, Separate But Equal

Plessy vs. Ferguson opened the door for institutionalized segregation known as the “separate but equal” doctrine that legalized segregation.

January 1, 1877, The Reconstruction Era Ends

The Compromise of 1877 began allowing for the election of Rutherford B. Hayes as President of the United States. As a part of the Compromise, Republicans agreed to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South. As a result, a succession of segregationist policies and Jim Crow laws were implemented..Read More

January 1, 1874, Freedman’s Bank Closes

The 61,000 people who had deposited $3 million (over $63 million in today’s dollars) into the system lost what they had when the bank closed in 1874 due to fraud, mismanagement and the panic of 1873. When the Freedman’s Bank closed, people of color were relegated to high-cost financiers and..Read More

January 1, 1872, Homestead Act Amended

During the Reconstruction Era, the Homestead Act of 1862 was amended in 1872 to prohibit making a “distinction on account of race or color” in the issuance of Homestead grants thereby opening up the program to settle western lands in the U.S. to those who were not White.

July 9, 1868, The Fourteenth Amendment

The U.S. Constitution was amended, ratified in 1868, granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States, including former slaves, and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws.” (See next panel for further info.)