Being-Rome: President Kennedy barred Racial Discrimination in Federally Financed Housing

Being-Rome: President Kennedy barred Racial Discrimination in Federally Financed Housing

Introduction In its 1961 report on discrimination in "Housing," the Civil Rights Commission summed it up this way: "In 1959 the Commission found that 'housing * * * seems to be the one commodity in the American market that is not freely available on equal terms to everyone who can afford to pay.' Today, 2 years later, the situation is not noticeably better." "Throughout the country large groups of American citizens ­ mainly Negroes, but other minorities too ­ are denied an equal opportunity to choose where they will live. Much of the housing market is closed to them for reasons unrelated to their personal worth or ability to pay. New housing, by and large, is available only to whites. And in the restricted market that is open to them Negroes generally must pay more for equivalent housing than do the favored majority. 'The dollar in the dark hand' does not 'have the same purchasing power as a dollar in a white hand.'"² Where do we stand today, 40 years later? I am going to speak about some events that played a role in that transition. In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy campaigned for President claiming that, if elected, he would prohibit discrimination in housing built with federal subsidies "by a stroke of the pen."  

After two years of no action, for which he was roundly criticized, President Kennedy on November 20, 1962, "by a stroke of the pen" issued Executive Order 11063 directing all departments and agencies of the Federal Government to take all action, including litigation by the Attorney General, necessary and appropriate to prevent discrimination because of race, color, creed, or national origin in the sale, leasing, rental, or other disposition of federally owned or operated residential property or residential property provided thereafter with the assistance of the Federal Government and in lending practices relating to loans thereafter insured or guaranteed by the Federal Government. Five-and-one-half years later, Congress weighed in, passing the Fair Housing Act of 1968, and two months thereafter the Supreme Court held in Jones v. Mayer Company that the Civil Rights Act of 1866, 42 U.S.C. § 1982, a dead letter for the intervening century, was constitutional, means what it says and secures to Blacks the same rights to contract for housing as are enjoyed by whites.  

As John Doar, a great leader and molder of the Civil Rights Division, First Assistant and Assistant Attorney General, 1960-67, was fond of saying: "When this Nation seeks to address a really tough problem, it's best to have all three branches of the Federal Government publicly on board and faced in the same direction." By June 1968, all three branches had lined up against discrimination in housing -- at least on paper. 134 years have passed since § 1982 was enacted; 37 years since President Kennedy stroked his pen; and 32 years since Congress adopted Title VIII and the Supreme Court decided Jones v. Mayer.