Civil Rights Act of 1968

Full title	An act to prescribe penalties for certain acts of violence or intimidation, and for other purposes.
Colloquial name(s)	Fair Housing Act
Enacted by the	90th United States Congress
Effective	April 11, 1968
Citations
Public Law	90-284
Stat.	82 Stat. 73
Codification
Title(s) amended	42
Legislative history
Introduced in the House as H.R. 2516 by Emanuel Celler (D–NY) on January 7, 1967 Committee consideration by: Judiciary Passed the House on August 16, 1967 (326–93) Passed the Senate on March 12, 1968 (71–20) with amendment House agreed to Senate amendment on April 10, 1968 (250–172) Signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968
Major amendments
Section 1983 Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988
United States Supreme Court cases
Trafficante v. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.
v t e

President Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1968

The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968, (Pub.L. 90-284, 82 Stat. 73, enacted April 11, 1968) was a landmark piece of legislation in the United States that provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, creed, or national origin. The Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, who had previously signed the landmark Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.

Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 is commonly known as the Fair Housing Act and was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the Civil Rights Act of 1866^[1] prohibited discrimination in housing, there were no federal enforcement provisions. The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, and since 1974, gender; since 1988, the act protects people with disabilities and families with children.

Victims of discrimination may use both the 1968 act and the 1866 act via section 1983^[2] to seek redress. The 1968 act provides for federal solutions while the 1866 act provides for private solutions (i.e., civil suits). A rider attached to the bill makes it a felony to "travel in interstate commerce... with the intent to incite, promote, encourage, participate in and carry on a riot..." This provision has been criticized for "equating organized political protest with organized violence."^[3]

Types of banned discrimination[link]

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 prohibited the following forms of discrimination:

1. Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his/her race, color, religion or national origin. People with disabilities and families with children were added to the list of protected classes by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988.
2. Discrimination against a person in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling.
3. Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin (amended by Congress as part of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 to include sex^[4] and, as of 1988, people with disabilities and families with children.)
4. Coercing, threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a person's enjoyment or exercise of housing rights based on discriminatory reasons or retaliating against a person or organization that aids or encourages the exercise or enjoyment of fair housing rights.

Subsequent legislative and judicial changes[link]

In 1988, Congress voted to weaken the ability of plaintiffs to prosecute cases of discriminatory treatment in housing. But the Fair Housing Act was also amended in 1988 to allow plaintiffs' attorneys to recover attorney's fees. Additionally, the 1988 amendment added people with disabilities and families with children to the classes covered by the Act.

In the early 1990s, in Trouillon v. City of Hawthorne, the Legal Defense and Education Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) successfully challenged an urban renewal plan on the basis of race discrimination by bringing suit under the Fair Housing Act. Previous litigation under the Act had largely been limited to discrimination in buying or renting housing.

Although he ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Judge Davis nevertheless disputed the allegations of discrimination. He said he based his ruling in part on the city's failure to prove that the area had a higher crime rate and lower property values than other parts of the city. The city "did not act in bad faith or fraudulently," Davis wrote. "(It) did not discriminate against any minority or low or moderate income person and did not violate any person's Due Process, Equal Protection or other Civil Rights."^[5]

Lawful discrimination[link]

Only certain kinds of discrimination are covered by fair housing laws. Landlords are not required by law to rent to any tenant who applies for a property. Landlords can select tenants based on objective business criteria, such as the applicant's ability to pay the rent and take care of the property. Landlords can lawfully discriminate against tenants with bad credit histories or low incomes, and (except in some areas) do not have to rent to tenants who will be receiving Section 8 vouchers. Landlords must be consistent in the screening, treat tenants who are inside and outside the protected classes in the same manner, and should document any legitimate business reason for not renting to a prospective tenant. As of 2010, no federal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is provided, but these protections do exist in some localities.

HUD has stated that buyers and renters may discriminate and may request real estate agents representing them to limit home searches to parameters that are discriminatory.^[6] The primary purpose of the Fair Housing Act is to protect the buyer's (and renter's) right to seek a dwelling anywhere they choose. It protects the buyer's right to discriminate by prohibiting certain discriminatory acts by sellers, landlords, and real estate agents.

Housing discrimination[link]

The Civil Rights Act of 1968 defines housing discrimination as the “refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion or national origin.” Title VIII of this Act is commonly referred to as the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Later, the disabled and families with children were added to this list.^[4] 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.

Social steering[link]

Social steering is a form of housing discrimination that involves housing authorities, real estate companies and even local governments steering certain groups of people, often minorities, into certain areas of a city. According to Realestateagent.com, it is “Directing a particular race to a certain neighborhood and away from others. An example is a real estate broker steering a black family away from a white neighborhood.” Some types of housing projects can be taken as examples of steering.

Often, especially in east coast cities^{[citation needed]}, housing projects concentrate poor minorities into a few buildings or blocks, concentrating the population and isolating them from most of the city. Often the areas where the steering tends to concentrate certain groups of people lack city resources that other parts of the city may have. Mike Davis notes that in Los Angeles, the "ghetto" is not wired into key information circuits like the rest of the city such as education and cultural media.

In the 1950s, governments across America took initiatives to destroy so-called slums and ghettos of the cities, and put up housing projects in place. These multi-story, high-density projects were where whites began to push blacks who were dislocated by destruction of slums, also heavily avoided by the white population. Despite the Fair Housing Act, which included cases like Gautreaux and Shannon which prohibited placing projects exclusively in black neighborhoods, the trend did not end.^[7]

Social steering can also be outside the economic institutions of real-estate a government policy decisions to build projects. Often the people living in a neighborhood may not be so friendly to people moving in that are different from them. For example, in 1985 an interracial couple moved into an all white neighborhood in Philadelphia. Upon arrival there was an angry mob waving torches and protesting the arrival of a person of color.^[8] The attitudes of people in certain neighborhoods therefore can also contribute to the segregation and steering of people of certain backgrounds.

Before the Fair Housing Act many minorities were met with blatantly racist objects of deterrence such as signs in the neighborhood or at real estate companies explicitly saying they do not accept certain minorities. However, after the Fair Housing Act, steering took on the role of a subtle fashion, where realtors deceive and lie making it harder to learn about or rent/buy homes in certain neighborhoods. The minorities are guided or “steered” into neighborhoods with certain characteristics of economics and race.

Case studies[link]

A Cleveland study revealed that 10% of companies in the 1970s practiced racial steering.^[9] As recently as 2006 there was an investigation of a real estate company in Chicago, where African-American and white testers attempted to buy condominiums. White testers were shown many more properties—around 36—while the African American testers only got to see on average 7.^[10] This was actually a lawsuit known as Coldwell Banker vs. Illinois Attorney General (2006).

Another Detroit study showed that whites were rarely shown homes in non-white neighborhoods unless they asked to see them. There are numerous cases and studies done that show the more subtle end of racial and social steering after the Fair Housing Act. On the average, 50% of the time African-Americans are discriminated against when searching for housing.^[11]

Redlining[link]

Redlining is related to steering because it is denying financial support and services to neighborhoods based on race, ethnicity, or economic status.^[12] Rather than subtly steering individual families towards certain areas or only giving them information on certain racial areas, redlining was a blatant but legally tolerated criteria for financial institutions to decide where to invest. Originating in the New Deal, this procedure was a protocol for deciding where federal, state and city funds would go for financial services. Affluent middle and upper middle class white areas were outlined in green on a map, meaning that financial services were clear to be rendered and these areas were desirable for investment. Racial areas, specifically African-American neighborhoods, were outlined in red, meaning they were undesirable and poor, not to mention racially mixed. These maps were used by banking institutions to construct guidelines for lending money. As a consequence, many of these redlined areas, which were also typically located in urban environments as whites tended to move out to the suburbs of America, experienced deterioration on a rapid scale. Since these areas have been neglected and redlined and cannot receive funds from banks to revitalize, they cannot attract businesses, which perpetuates the cycle of poverty. The poverty often leads to crime, and neighborhoods become further neglected because they continue to be unattractive to outside investment, and continue to be redlined by banks. Thus private banks and financial institutions as well as the U.S. government are accused of being responsible for these practices in several instances, which before the Fair Housing Act were widespread and blatant throughout the U.S. Redlining is still practiced today on a more subtle level. Instead of having official maps circulated to institutions, which is illegal, the public domain may tend to ignore poor neighborhoods by denying basic public services.

Segregation Index[link]

Nancy A. Denton and Douglass S. Massey devised a segregation index to measure the degree of segregation of African-Americans and whites according to income levels. Their objective was to show that the discrimination of African-Americans when it comes to housing was not related to income level, which many thought to be true. Many have argued that continuing segregation is due to African-Americans generally making less money, which means they cannot afford to live in the same neighborhoods as affluent whites. But as the segregation index by Denton and Massey showed, blacks still remained highly segregated from whites no matter what the income level was. For example, in 1980, black families earning $25,000 a year or less had an index level of 86 while those earning $50,000 or more had an index level of 83. This trend was common throughout most major metropolitan areas, especially prevalent in the northern cities. The goal of this index was to show that upward economic mobility did not affect the level of segregation in America’s cities. It should be noted that Denton and Massey also surveyed Hispanics and Asians, and found on average the indices to be 64 which meant the poorest Hispanics and Asians were still less segregated than the most affluent blacks. Leslie Carr notes that in 1990, 74 percent of whites live in suburbs, while most African-Americans and Hispanics live in urban areas, and that African-Americans were a majority population in 14 cities (with populations over 100,000).^[13] The purpose of this study was to show that housing practices are indeed racially and not economically discriminatory .

Legislation[link]

Civil Rights Act of 1866

This is the law that declared all people born in the United States are legally citizens. This means they could rent, hold, sell and buy property. This law was meant to help former slaves, and those who refused to grant these new rights to slaves were guilty and punishable under law. The penalty was a fine of $1000 or a maximum of one year in jail.

Fair Housing Act of 1968 (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968)

Extends the protection to color, religion, sex and national origin.

The New York State Human Rights Law

Extends the protection to marital status and age, aimed to prevent non-racial discrimination.

Section 236 and 237 of the New York State Property Law

Further extends the protection to include dwellings with children and mobile home parks. This is meant to protect renters and sellers from discriminating based on number of children in a family. Currently the Fair Housing Act protects against discrimination of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. The law applies to all types of housing, rental homes, apartments, condos and houses. The only exception to the act is when an owner of a small rental building lives in the same building he rents to. Since he owns the building and also resides there, he can decide who lives there. However this exception is shaky and does not hold up in court very well.^{[citation needed]}

Sexual orientation and gender identity[link]

Sexual orientation and gender identity are not protected under the Fair Housing Act. This is because federal law does not protect gays and lesbians or other sexual minorities (transgender or transsexual) with discrimination in housing. There are fifteen states that have passed laws prohibiting discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The states that have passed fair housing laws in regards to sexual orientation and gender identity are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In addition to the states above the following five states prohibit discrimination in housing based on sexual orientation only: Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Wisconsin.^[14] There are also cities that have passed laws making discrimination based on sexual orientation illegal. These are: Atlanta, Austin,^[15] Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Covington (KY), Denver, Detroit, Houston, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Seattle.^{[citation needed]}

In 2012, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity issued a regulation to prohibit LGBT discrimination in federally-assisted housing programs. The new regulations ensure that the Department's core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Violations of the Fair Housing Act[link]

There are an estimated 2 million cases of housing discrimination each year according to HUD. The National Fair Housing Alliance, the largest fair housing non-profit in the country, estimates that number to be closer to 4 million per year, excluding instances of discrimination due to disability or familial status.^[16] The actual number of Fair Housing Act violations is likely much higher than 4 million annually. However, between the years of 1989 and 1992 only 17 of these went to court nationwide. Redlining is still a major problem despite the legislation passed making it illegal. Studies and investigations have shown that minorities who apply for mortgages are rejected 3 times as much as Caucasians. According to one Federal Reserve Board study, among higher income applicants, the denial rates were as follows:

• African-Americans: 21.4%
• Latinos: 15.8%
• Asians: 11.2%
• Whites: 8.5%

Housing projects have also come under fire by researchers and NGOs alike. Housing advocates Elizabeth Julian and Michael Daniel state:

in addition to the inequality in the actual housing provided to low-income African-American families under the federal programs, the neighborhoods in which they receive assistance are usually subject to various adverse conditions not found in the neighborhoods surrounding the housing units in which whites receive the same assistance. These conditions include inferior city-provided facilities and services, little or no new or newer residential housing, large numbers of seriously substandard structures, noxious environmental conditions, substandard or completely absent neighborhood service facilities, high crime rates, inadequate access to job centers, and little or no investment of new capital in the area by public and private entities.

Thus, this discrimination goes beyond being poor because white housing projects receive more attention and public investment, making housing discrimination overall a racial problem.

Although several legal measures have been taken to protect all kinds of people against housing discrimination in the U.S., still the most commonly targeted and largest victims are African-Americans.

See also[link]

Discrimination portal

• Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Protests of 1968
• Racial segregation in the United States

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Carr, Leslie. Color Blind Racism. Sage Publications Inc, 1997.
• United States. Committee on National Statistics. Measuring Housing Discrimination in a National Study. NY: GPO, 2000.
• Kristyn, Hartman. "Major Realty Firm Accused Of Racial Discrimination." CBS2Chicago. 22 008 2006. CBS. 26 Apr 2008 <http://cbs2chicago.com/topstories/Coldwell.Banker.real.2.331468.html>.
• Cole, Yoji. "Racial Steering? Black Family Says They Were Kept Out of Gross Pointe." DiversityInc. 02 002 2007. DiversityInc Magazine. 21 Apr 2008 <http://www.diversityinc.com/public/1225.cfm>.
• Scott, Janny. "Report Alleges Bias by a Real Estate Giant." The New York Times. 11 10 2006. The New York Times. 23 Apr 2008 <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/nyregion/11discriminate.html?_r=1&oref=slogin>.
• Squires, Gregory D.. From Redlining to Reinvestment. 2. Temple University Press, 1992.
• American Civil Liberties Union, Humans Rights Violations in the United States. Human Rights Watch. United States Library of Congress, 1993.
• Massey, Douglass. "Racial Discrimination in Housing: A moving Target." Social Problems 52(2005): 148-151.
• Williams, Richard, Reynold Nesiba, and Eileen Diaz McConnell. "The Changing Face of Inequality In Home Mortgage Lending." Social Problems 52(2005): 181-207.
• Henderson, A. Scott. "Race Matters: The Folks Next Door." Reviews in American History 29(2001): 119-125.
• Massey, Douglass, and Nancy Denton. American Apartheid. Boston: Harvard University Press, 1993.
• "Understanding Your Rights: Housing Discrimination." FindLaw For the Public. 2008. Find Law. 7 May 2008 <http://public.findlaw.com/civil-rights/housing-discrimination/le9_funderstanding(1).html >.

External links[link]

• HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
• File a Housing Discrimination Complaint
• Fair Housing Act
• Fair Housing letters
• National Fair Housing Advocate Online
• Facts About Housing Discrimination Laws in Connecticut
• Lyndon Baines Jonhson Remarks Upon Signing the Civil Rights Act, April 11, 1968 from the Texas Archive of the Moving Image

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In the United States, the fair housing (also open housing) policies date largely from the 1960s. Originally, the terms fair housing and open housing came from a political movement of the time to outlaw discrimination in the rental or purchase of homes and a broad range of other housing-related transactions, such as advertising, mortgage lending, homeowner's insurance and zoning. Later, the same language was used in laws. In April 1968, at the urging of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, Congress passed the federal Fair Housing Act (codified at 42 U.S.C. 3601-3619, penalties for violation at 42 U.S.C. 3631), Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, only one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

The primary purpose of the Fair Housing Law of 1968 is to protect the buyer/renter of a dwelling from seller/landlord discrimination. Its primary prohibition makes it unlawful to refuse to sell, rent to, or negotiate with any person because of that person's inclusion in a protected class.^[1] The goal is a unitary housing market in which a person's background (as opposed to financial resources) does not arbitrarily restrict access. Calls for open housing were issued early in the twentieth century, but it was not until after World War II that concerted efforts to achieve it were undertaken.

Up to 1968[link]

While the Civil Rights Act of 1866 included language that could be construed as creating a fair housing policy, no federal enforcement provisions were given. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled that racially restrictive covenants in real estate were unenforceable in court.^[2]

In the years following World War II, African Americans found themselves confronted with increasing patterns of housing segregation. They were excluded from the suburbs and the real-estate industry, which severely restricted educational and economic opportunities. In 1955, William Byron Rumford, the first black to serve in the California State Legislature, introduced a fair-housing bill outlawing housing discrimination on the basis of race.

In 1963, California Legislature passed the Rumford Fair Housing Act which outlawed restrictive covenants and the refusal to rent or sell property on the basis of race, ethnicity, gender, marital status, or physical disability.

In reaction to the law, a well-funded coalition of realtors and landlords was determined to protect white neighborhoods and property values. They immediately began to campaign for a referendum that would amend the state Constitution to protect property owners' ability to deny minorities equal access to housing. Known as Proposition 14, it was passed by 65 percent of the voters.

In 1966, the California State Supreme Court, in Mulkey v. Reitman, ruled that Proposition 14 violated the State Constitution's provisions for equal protection and due process.

In 1967, in Reitman v. Mulkey, the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the California Supreme Court and ruled that Proposition 14 had violated the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution.^[3]

The federal Civil Rights Act of 1964^[4] also addressed the issue, but made few provisions for enforcement.

The Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) introduced meaningful federal enforcement mechanisms. It outlawed:

• Refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• Discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin in the terms, conditions or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling.
• Advertising the sale or rental of a dwelling indicating preference of discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin.
• Coercing, threatening, intimidating, or interfering with a person's enjoyment or exercise of housing rights based on discriminatory reasons or retaliating against a person or organization that aids or encourages the exercise or enjoyment of fair housing rights.

Open housing since 1968[link]

When the Fair Housing Act was first enacted, it prohibited discrimination only on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.^[5] In 1988, disability and familial status (the presence or anticipated presence of children under 18 in a household) were added (further codified in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990).^[5] In certain circumstances, the law allows limited exceptions for discrimination based on sex, religion, or familial status.^[6]

The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is the federal executive department with the statutory authority to administer and enforce the Fair Housing Act. The Secretary of Housing and Urban Development has delegated fair housing enforcement and compliance activities to HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) and HUD's Office of General Counsel. FHEO is one of the United States' largest federal civil rights agencies. It has a staff of more than 600 people located in 54 offices around the United States. As of May 2009, the head of FHEO is Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John D. Trasviña, whose appointment was confirmed on May 1, 2009.^[7]

Individuals who believe they have experienced housing discrimination can file a complaint with FHEO at no charge. FHEO funds and has working agreements with many state and local governmental agencies where "substantially equivalent" fair housing laws are in place. Under these agreements, FHEO refers complaints to the state or locality where the alleged incident occurred, and those agencies investigate and process the case instead of FHEO. This is known as FHEO's Fair Housing Assistance Program (or "FHAP").

There is also a network of private, non-profit fair housing advocacy organizations throughout the country. Some are funded by FHEO's Fair Housing Initiatives Program (or "FHIP"), and some operate with private donations or grants from other sources.

Victims of housing discrimination need not go through HUD or any other governmental agency to pursue their rights, however. The Fair Housing Act confers jurisdiction to hear cases on federal district courts. The United States Department of Justice also has jurisdiction to file cases on behalf of the United States where there is a pattern and practice of discrimination or where HUD has found discrimination in a case and either party elects to go to federal court instead of continuing in the HUD administrative process.

The Fair Housing Act applies to landlords renting or leasing space in their primary residence only if the residence contains living quarters occupied or intended to be occupied by three or more other families living independently of each other, such as an owner-occupied rooming house.

A case study in local fair housing: Seattle, Washington[link]

Fair housing protest, Seattle, 1964

As remarked above, federal fair housing law is paralleled by state and local fair housing law. The same was true of the campaign for the enactment of these laws. Seattle, Washington is a case in point. As with the national movement, the movement in Seattle occurred against a background of other Civil Rights activity.

In 1956, Seattle's Civic Unity Committee created the Greater Seattle Housing Council, intending to encourage dialogue between proponents of open housing and the real estate industry. At this time, talks were fruitless. The following year, Washington State passed an Omnibus Civil Rights Act that provided that housing that had current federal or state government loans could not discriminate on the basis of race. In 1959, this was challenged in King County Superior Court.^[2]

The civil rights campaign in Seattle stepped up in October 1961, when the Seattle Employment Discrimination campaign urged selective buying with campaigns referred to as well a "shoe-in" and a "shop-in." In this same time frame, the NAACP requested an open housing ordinance. The Seattle City Council convened a public hearing on the matter on December 11, 1961, but declined to act, recommending instead that supporters of such a law organize a ballot initiative.^[2]

Rather than focus immediately on legislation, proponents of open housing pursued a different channel in the short run: in the summer of 1962, 24 organizations created the Fair Housing Listing Service (FHLS) to bring blacks who wished to purchase housing outside of Seattle's historically black Central District together with white homeowners willing to sell to minorities. By the beginning of 1965, FHLS negotiated 50 such sales.^[2]

On December 17, 1962, the Mayor's Citizen's Advisory Committee on Minority Housing recommended that an open housing ordinance be submitted to city council, but the mayor and council delayed all action for a year. That year would prove eventful.^[2]

The Urban League and NAACP resigned from the Greater Seattle Housing Council because they believed had been ineffective in housing matters. A new committee was formed, the Central Area Civil Rights Committee (CACRC). 400 people participated in a protest march July 1, 1963, and 35 youth from the interracial Central District Youth Club staged Seattle's first sit-in, a nearly 24-hour occupation of the mayor's office. That very day the city council and mayor proposed a Seattle Human Rights Commission, which was established July 17 (City Ordinance 92191). The commission was authorized to draft open housing ordinance. This did not prevent a July 20 sit-in in the council chambers.^[2]

On August 28, 1963, the same day as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1,000 demonstrators marched from Seattle's First AME Church to the Federal Courthouse. Also that same day, Seattle Public Schools became the country's first major school system to initiate a voluntary desegregation plan. A week later, September 3, 1963, the Seattle Human Rights Commission recommended an ordinance against discrimination in housing sales, rentals, and financing.^[2]

An October 20 March in support of open housing drew 1,200 people. Five days later, the city council, meeting as a Committee of the Whole, held a public hearing on the open housing bill recommended by the Seattle Human Rights Commission. The bill was approved 7-2, but was stripped of the emergency clause that would have made a council vote sufficient to turn the bill immediately into law without the possibility of being overturned by a referendum. As would have been the case with or without an emergency clause, the Committee of the Whole sent the bill to the council as such (the same people) for a final vote. The two council votes against the final version of the bill were Wing Luke and Charles M. Carroll, both opposing it because the emergency clause had been taken out.^[2]

On November 27, 1963 the council approved the bill (as Ordinance 92497) by the same 7–2 margin, without the emergency clause. On December 9, 1963, Ordinance 92533 submitted Ordinance 92497 to the voters by charter referendum as part of a general election on March 10, 1964.^[2]

However, prospects did not bode well. On February 12, 1964 voters in nearby Tacoma, Washington defeated similar legislation by a margin of 3-1. On March 7, three days before the referendum vote, over 1,500 attended an open housing rally, marching from several places around the city to Westlake Plaza, but the March 10 election saw the ordinance go down to defeat, 115,627 to 54,448, as J. Dorm Braman, an opponent of open housing, was elected mayor of Seattle, defeating open housing supporter John Cherberg.^[2]

In summer 1964, the Freedom Summer was occurring in Mississippi and (on July 2) President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In Seattle, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated the Drive for Equal Employment in Downtown Stores (DEEDS), with a goal that minorities would constitute 24% of new hires in those stores. Through January 1965, these stores were subjected to boycotts. CORE also organized pickets and sit-ins at local real estate industry offices, but a court-ordered injunction terminated the latter protests.^[2]

Thirteen days after Bloody Sunday (March 7, 1965, when the Selma-to-Montgomery march in Alabama came under violent attack), more than 600 people in Seattle—a group slightly larger than the Selma-to-Montgomery march itself—took part in a "Freedom March" in support of the Selma marchers. Marching from the First AME Church to the Federal Courthouse, under the leadership of the NAACP, they demanded open housing legislation and equal job opportunities.^[2]

Seattle's open housing forces took a blow when, on May 15, 1965, just before the summer of the Voting Rights Act and the Watts Riots, an airplane crash killed Sidney Gerber and city council member Wing Luke. Gerber had founded Harmony Homes, which by that time had built 15 homes for African Americans in previously all-white Seattle neighborhoods.^[2]

Momentum was regained two years later, when on June 8, 1967 the Seattle Urban League initiated the three-year Operation Equality. Operation Equality provided counsel to minorities seeking housing, sponsored educational projects, and worked with fair housing groups to list available housing. It was the second such project in the United States to receive a Ford Foundation grant.^[2]

Later that year, Sam Smith won a Seattle City Council seat in the November election, becoming the first African American to serve on the council.^[2]

On April 11, 1968, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968. "Fair housing" had become federal policy, and Seattle had lost its opportunity to get out in front of the federal government on the matter. Eight days later, on April 19, 1968, the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a fair housing ordinance (Ordinance 96619). This time, sponsored by Smith and five other members of the 9-member council, it passed with an emergency clause, making it impossible to appeal by referendum by the voters.^[2]

Over the years, the legislation would be broadened further. In 1975, discrimination based on sex, marital status, sexual orientation, and political ideology were outlawed. In 1979, parental status was added; in 1986, creed and disability; and in 1999 gender identity.^[8]

See also[link]

• Buchanan v. Warley
• Department of Fair Employment and Housing
• Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity

Notes[link]

External links[link]

• File a housing discrimination complaint
• The National Fair Housing Advocate Online
  • Fair Housing Act, text of the law
• The National Fair Housing Alliance
• HUD's Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity
• EH.Net Encyclopedia: Fair Housing Laws
• Southern California Housing Rights Center
• The Fair Housing Center of Southeastern Michigan
• Fair Housing Blog

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Velvalea Rodgers "Vel" Phillips (born February 18, 1924) is a Wisconsin attorney who served as a local official and judge in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as Secretary of State of Wisconsin, often as the first woman and/or African-American in her position.

Early life and education[link]

Born on Milwaukee's South Side, Phillips won a national scholarship to attend Howard University, where she got her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1946. (She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta.) She returned to Wisconsin to attend the University of Wisconsin–Madison Law School, becoming the first black woman to graduate from that school (L.L.B, 1951). She and her husband (fellow UW Law graduate Dale Phillips) became the first husband-and-wife couple to be admitted to the Wisconsin bar.

Career[link]

In 1953, Phillips ran for a seat on the school board of the Milwaukee Public Schools, and was the first black candidate to make it past the non-partisan city-wide primary election, though she lost the runoff. Both she and her husband became active locally in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in support of a city redistricting referendum (there were at that time no black members of Milwaukee's Common Council). In 1956, Phillips became the first woman and the first African-American member of the Common Council in Milwaukee; since Common Council members were called "Alderman," she was given the title "Madam Alderman" by local officials. She would remain the only woman and only black member of that body for many years to come. Phillips frequently participated in nonviolent civil rights protests against discrimination in housing, education, and employment during the 1960s. Phillips first proposed an ordinance in 1962 to outlaw housing discrimination. In 1968 the Milwaukee Common Council approved a desegregation law after a federal housing law was passed. She was arrested at a rally following the firebombing of an NAACP office, the only city official to be arrested during the "long hot summer" of 1967, bringing further national media attention to the city.

Phillips resigned from the Common Council in 1971 and was appointed to the Milwaukee County judiciary, the first woman judge in Milwaukee and the first African American judge in Wisconsin. She lost her bid for reelection to the bench to a white candidate who made an issue of her involvement in protests and civil rights activities. She subsequently served as a lecturer at UW–Milwaukee and a visiting professor at Carroll College and UW–Madison Law School.

In 1978, Phillips made history as the first woman and first non-white elected Secretary of State in Wisconsin (although Glenn M. Wise had been appointed Secretary of State of Wisconsin 23 years earlier). During the absence of both the governor and lieutenant governor, under Wisconsin law she briefly served as Acting Governor (she later joked that "the men hurried back" when they realized they had left a woman in charge). Although Phillips lost the next election (to a white candidate), she was the highest-ranking woman to win state office in Wisconsin in the 20th century. A lifelong Democrat, she was also the first black to be elected as a member of the National Committee of either of the major U.S. political parties.

Active retirement[link]

Since leaving office, Phillips has remained active in the community, serving on the boards of the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and America's Black Holocaust Museum. In 2002, Phillips was appointed "Distinguished Professor of Law" at the Marquette University School of Law, where she is also reported to be producing a first-person memoir of Milwaukee's civil rights movement [1]. She chaired the successful congressional campaign of Gwen Moore, Wisconsin's first African-American and Milwaukee's first female member of the United States House of Representatives. She also serves on the board of the Vel Phillips Foundation, a charitable foundation created in 2006, whose mission is "to help establish equality and opportunity for minorities through social justice, education, equal housing opportunities, and jobs."

In August 2011, the University of Wisconsin–Madison announced that it had renamed one of its residence halls for Phillips.^[1]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Wisconsin Historical Society bio of Phillips
• Bio of Phillips on foundation website
• CV from the 1979 Wisconsin Blue Book
• Political Graveyard bio
• Vel Phillips Foundation home page
• The March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project

Al Green
Al Green in concert at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez, California on July 27, 2006.
Background information
Birth name	Albert Greene
Also known as	The Reverend Al Green
Born	(1946-04-13) April 13, 1946 (age 66)
Origin	Forrest City, Arkansas, U.S.
Genres	R&B, gospel, soul, smooth soul
Occupations	Reverend, vocalist, producer, songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar
Years active	1967–present
Labels	Hi, Myrrh, The Right Stuff
Associated acts	The Creations, Willie Mitchell
Website	www.algreenmusic.com

Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946),^[1] better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer. He reached the peak of his popularity in the 1970s, with hit singles such as "You Oughta Be With Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", "Love and Happiness", and "Let's Stay Together".^[2] In 2005, Rolling Stone named him #66 in their list of the '100 Greatest Artists of All Time'. The nomination stated that "people are born to do certain things, and Al was born to make us smile."^[3] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Green in 1995, referring to him as "one of the most gifted purveyors of soul music." Green has sold more than 20 million records.^[2]

Biography[link]

Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas.^[1] He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene.^[4] The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "E" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan.^[5] His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.^[6]

Green formed a group called Al Greene & the Creations in high school. Curtis Rogers and Palmer James, two members of the Creations, formed an independent label called Hot Line Music Journal. In 1967, under the new name Al Greene & the Soul Mates, the band recorded "Back Up Train" and released it on Hot Line Music; the song was an R&B chart hit. The Soul Mates' subsequent singles did not sell as well. Al Green's debut LP Back Up Train was released on Hot Line in 1967. The album was upbeat and soulful but didn't do well in sales. This was the only album on the Hot Line label. Green came into contact with band leader Willie Mitchell of Memphis' Hi Records in 1969, when Mitchell hired him as a vocalist for a Texas show with Mitchell's band and then asked him to sign with the label.

Rise to stardom[link]

Mitchell predicted stardom for Green^{[citation needed]}, coaching him to find his own, unique voice at a time when Green had previously been trying to sing like his heroes Jackie Wilson, Wilson Pickett, James Brown, and Sam Cooke. Green's debut album with Hi Records was Green Is Blues, a slow, horn-driven album that allowed Green to show off his powerful and expressive voice, with Mitchell arranging, engineering and producing. The album was a moderate success. The next LP, Al Green Gets Next to You (1970), included a hit remake of the Temptations classic "I Can't Get Next to You", and more significantly, Green's first of seven consecutive gold singles, "Tired of Being Alone". Let's Stay Together (1972) was an even bigger success, as was I'm Still In Love With You (1972). Call Me was a critical sensation and just as popular at the time; it is one of his most fondly remembered albums today. Al Green Explores Your Mind (1974) contained his own song "Take Me to the River", which was later turned into an R&B hit (#7) by label-mate Syl Johnson and also covered by Talking Heads (#26 Pop) on their second album.

Turn to Gospel[link]

On October 18, 1974, Mary Woodson White, a girlfriend of Green's, assaulted him before committing suicide at his Memphis home.^[7] Although she was already married, White reportedly became upset when Green refused to marry her,^[8] some four months after he peaked at #32 on the Hot 100 with the ironically titled "Let's Get Married". At some point during the evening, White doused Green with a pan of boiling grits while he was showering, causing burns on Green's back, stomach and arms.^[9] Then she went and found his .38 and killed herself. The police found in her purse a note declaring her intentions and her reasons. "The more I trust you," she'd written, "the more you let me down."

Green cited the incident as a wake-up call to change his life.^[7] He became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976 and continues to serve in this capacity, delivering services down the street from Graceland.^[10] Continuing to record R&B, Green saw his sales start to slip and drew mixed reviews from critics.^[11] 1977's The Belle Album was critically acclaimed but did not regain his former mass audience.^[12] In 1979 Green injured himself falling off the stage while performing in Cincinnati and interpreted this as a message from God. He then concentrated his energies towards pastoring his church and gospel singing,^[10] also appearing in 1982 with Patti Labelle in the Broadway musical Your Arms Too Short to Box with God.^[13] According to Glide Magazine, "by the late 70s, he had begun concentrating almost exclusively on gospel music." ^[14] His first gospel album was The Lord Will Make a Way. From 1981 to 1989 Green recorded a series of gospel recordings, garnering eight "soul gospel performance" Grammys in that period. In 1985, he reunited with Willie Mitchell along with Angelo Earl for He Is the Light, his first album for A&M Records. In 1984, director Robert Mugge released a documentary film, Gospel According to Al Green, including interviews about his life and footage from his church.^[15] In 1989, Green released "I Get Joy", again with producer/guitarist Angelo Earl. In 2001, he appeared in the movie and soundtrack of On the Line featuring Lance Bass.

Return to R&B[link]

After spending several years exclusively performing gospel, Green began to return to R&B (Rhythm & Blues). First, he released a duet with Annie Lennox, "Put a Little Love in Your Heart" for Scrooged, a 1988 Bill Murray film. In 1989 Green worked with producer Arthur Baker writing and producing the international hit "The Message Is Love". In 1991 he created the introductory theme song for the short-lived television series Good Sports featuring Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett.^[7] In 1992, Green recorded again with Baker, the Fine Young Cannibals, and reunited with his former Memphis mix engineer (this time functioning as producer) Terry Manning, to release the album Don't Look Back. His 1994 duet with country music singer Lyle Lovett blended country with R&B, garnering him his ninth Grammy, this time in a pop music category. Green's first secular album in some time was Your Heart's In Good Hands (1995), released to positive reviews but disappointing sales, the same year Green was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[16]

In 2000, Green published Take Me to the River, a book discussing his career. Green received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002.^[16]

In 2001, Green's live cover of Sam Cooke's "A Change Is Gonna Come" was released on the soundtrack to Will Smith's film Ali (the song plays when Muhammad Ali learns of the death of close friend Malcolm X).

By 2003 Green released a non-religious (secular) album entitled I Can't Stop, his first collaboration with Willie Mitchell since 1985's He is the Light. In March 2005 he issued Everything's OK as the follow-up to I Can't Stop. Green also collaborated with Mitchell on this secular CD.

In 2004, Green sang a duet, "Simply Beautiful", with Queen Latifah on her The Dana Owens Album. In 2006, Green worked on his latest studio album for Blue Note Records with The Roots' Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson.^[17] The album, Lay It Down, was released May 27, 2008 and includes tracks featuring John Legend, Corinne Bailey Rae and Anthony Hamilton.^[18] Green said in an interview that he would have liked to duet with Marvin Gaye: "In those days, people didn't sing together like they do now," he said.^[19]

In 2008, Green's album Lay It Down marked his full return to chart success, reaching number nine on the Billboard hit album chart. It was his most successful album release in 35 years.

In 2009, Al Green, along with Heather Headley, released a version of the song "People Get Ready" on the compilation album Oh Happy Day: An All-Star Music Celebration.^[20]

In June 2010 Al Green appeared on the BBC show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross and sang "Let's Stay Together" accompanied by David Gilmour and Jools Holland.

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

In 2004, Green was inducted into the Gospel Music Association's Gospel Music Hall of Fame. Also in 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him #65 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[3] He was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 BET Awards on June 24, 2009 .^[21]

On August 26, 2004, Green was honored as a BMI Icon at the annual BMI Urban Awards. He joined an impressive list of previous Icon honorees including R&B legends James Brown, Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Bo Diddley^[22]

In 2009, Al Green was inducted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame.^[23] Green's biggest hit, "Let's Stay Together", was voted a Legendary Michigan Song that same year.^[24]

See also[link]

• List of best-selling music artists

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Al Green

• Official Al Green website
• Al Green at the Internet Movie Database
• Al Green at the Internet Broadway Database
• Al Green at Allmusic
• Green Is Blues 40th Anniversary website
• Al Green: Biography