Abstract

The thirtieth anniversary of the national Fair Housing Act is an occasion for mixed emotions and for partial celebration. The law was enacted in spring 1968, shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the resulting riots, and many decades after President Truman had ordered the racial desegregation of the military. It also followed several years of other pathbreaking civil rights laws that had been enacted covering employment, education, voting rights, and public accomodations. In many ways "fair housing" was one of the hardest bills to enact because it struck at one of the cherished pillars of American way of life -- the right to own or rent and to do what one pleases with one's property. The law extended beyond public-sector housing, which had also been addressed in Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Act was, in theory, the pinnacle of civil rights reform in this country because it offered equal access to a home, a mortgage, and neighborhoods that accompanied equal access to the voting booth, education, jobs, hotels, and other major arenas of life.

Guest Editor's Introduction (*.pdf)