Civil Rights Act of 1968
The Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act, aimed to address housing discrimination by prohibiting the refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person based on their race, color, religion, or national origin. It also made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone" exercising their fair housing rights.
7 Key excerpts on "Civil Rights Act of 1968"
eBook - ePub- William J. Rothwell, William J. Rothwell(Authors)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- Pfeiffer(Publisher)
...It also provided protection for civil rights workers (Pratt, 2003). 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 or 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 (Pratt, 2003). 2. Discrimination against a person in the terms, conditions, or privilege of the sale or rental of a dwelling (Pratt, 2003). 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 and, as of 1988, people with disabilities and families with children) (Pratt, 2003). 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 (Pratt, 2003). Civil Rights Act of 1991 According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 is a U.S. statute passed in response to a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions that limited the rights of employees who had sued their employers for discrimination. The Act represented the first effort since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to modify some of the basic procedural and substantive rights provided by federal law in employment discrimination cases. It provided for the right to trial by jury on discrimination claims and introduced the possibility of emotional distress damages, while limiting the amount that a jury could award (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)...
eBook - ePubThe Fight for Fair Housing
Causes, Consequences, and Future Implications of the 1968 Federal Fair Housing Act
- Gregory D. Squires, Gregory D. Squires(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Johnson, April 11, 1968) With that, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 officially became the law of the land. The Fair Housing Amendments Act While the passage of the Fair Housing Act was an undeniable civil rights victory, the true cost of the Dirksen Compromise would soon become clear. Without any significant enforcement power, HUD was incapable of doing anything other than attempting to reach a voluntary conciliation between parties. Private lawsuits and a small number of pattern-or-practice cases brought by the DOJ were not able to fill the void left by the lack of an administrative enforcement mechanism. Enforcement of state and local fair housing laws was spotty: whether or not the laws were enforced in a particular jurisdiction often depended upon whether any committed, experienced lawyers were willing to bring cases. As a result, in the decades to follow, the FHA would fail to live up to its promise to end housing discrimination and foster integrated living patterns. Residential segregation rates remained unacceptably high throughout the 1980s, a situation which scholars likened to apartheid. A 1979 national study by HUD found that housing discrimination was still pervasive. The study estimated that two million acts of housing discrimination took place each year (in contrast with just 5,000 complaints filed annually). It also found the probability of a black homeseeker experiencing discrimination was approximately 75 percent in the rental market and 62 percent in the sales market (Wienk et al. 1979: 64). As one commentator later noted, “Of all the civil rights battles fought during the last three decades, only housing discrimination appears to remain totally unabated, entrenched, and impervious to public policy and civil rights enforcement” (Kushner 1989: 1050). The coverage of the FHA remained an issue as well. The law included only race, color, religion, and national origin as protected characteristics...
eBook - ePubLegal Rights, 6th Ed.
The Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People
- National Association of the Deaf(Author)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Gallaudet University Press(Publisher)
...Chapter 8 Housing I n this country housing is generally recognized as a right that everyone should be able to enjoy. Every person should be able to live in housing that is both safe and within their financial means. However, legislation was necessary to promote fair housing, and laws were passed to protect certain classes of people from housing discrimination. T HE F AIR H OUSING A CT The Fair Housing Act (FHA) was initially enacted through Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. 1 President Lyndon B. Johnson promoted Title VIII as a response to the discrimination in housing that African Americans and Hispanics faced, which prevented them from purchasing or renting homes in certain areas. 2 Title VIII was amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 (FHAA). 3 The original FHA protects individuals from discrimination in housing on a number of bases. 4 The FHAA extended protections to individuals with disabilities, although the language of the FHAA uses the term handicap. 5 The Amendments Act also gave the Fair Housing Act enforcement authority. 6 The FHAA defines handicap in the same way the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act define disability: (1) a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities (2) a record of having such an impairment, or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment 7 The regulations of the FHAA define “physical impairments” as including “speech and hearing impairments” and “major life activities” as including hearing and speaking. 8 Pursuant to these definitions, deaf and hard of hearing individuals are covered by the FHAA. Prohibited Discrimination Several sections of the FHA spell out specific acts that are considered prohibited discrimination against people with handicaps...
eBook - ePubRace, Real Estate, and Uneven Development, Second Edition
The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010
- Kevin Fox Gotham(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- SUNY Press(Publisher)
...In Detroit, civil associations and real estate firms collected more than 40,000 signatures to put a Homeowners’ Rights Ordinance on the 1964 primary ballot (Sugrue 2005, 218–29). In 1966, white homeowners in Chicago successfully halted Martin Luther King’s attempt to lead a series of marches in white suburban neighborhoods to protest racial segregation in housing (Quadagno 1994, 96). Similar backlashes against the fair housing movement occurred in Milwaukee, Baltimore, Akron, Berkeley, Seattle, and Tacoma (Sauer 1964, 541; Orser 1994). Yet the release of the Kerner Commission report in January 1968, the assassination of Martin Luther King three months later, and a concerted lobbying effort by fair housing proponents helped pass the Civil Rights Act that banned discrimination in housing. The Act authorized the recently created Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to enforce the federal government’s anti-discrimination statutes and develop a series of housing subsidy programs to increase home ownership for low-income citizens and revitalize cities. HOUSING ACT OF 1968 AND THE FHA’S SECTION 235 PROGRAM At the same time the fair housing movement was fighting for the passage of fair housing legislation, civil rights groups focused their attack on the segregationist practices of the FHA and the private real estate and banking industries. In 1967, The National Committee Against Discrimination in Housing (NCDH) released a scathing report on the FHA proclaiming that the Federal Government “is primarily responsible for undergirding a ghetto system that dominates, distorts, and despoils every aspect of life in the United States today” (1967, 3). A number of governmental commissions investigating the social problems of urban disinvestment and racial polarization in cities, including the National Commission on Urban Problems, the President’s Committee on Urban Housing, and the U.S...
eBook - ePubLocal Government Law
A Practical Guidebook for Public Officials on City Councils, Community Boards, and Planning Commissions
- Gerald A. Fisher(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 7 Fair Housing Providing access to decent housing for all, free of discrimination, has long been an important objective in the United States, an objective that has escaped full realization in spite of considerable attention. Traditionally, for purposes of providing an adequate assurance of lawful and decent housing, communities often understood this to involve local government enforcement of zoning and construction code regulations. While such enforcement continues to be relevant, it has become well-recognized that lawful and decent housing requires more comprehensive action in order to resolve the problem of housing segregation that remains in our country. Perhaps the most pervasive additional effort at addressing this issue is embodied in a federal law known as the Federal Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq.) which broadly declared in 1968 that it is “the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States.” In 1988, the Fair Housing Amendments Act expanded its protections. The Federal Fair Housing Act (or “FHA”) will be the focus of this chapter. The discussion will first consider an historical context, focused on the first half of the 1900s, when the problem of housing segregation took a turn for the worse during the two World Wars, as well as the period after World War II, when the problem was exacerbated as metropolitan areas were created throughout the country. We will then focus on three specific areas of activity in which local governments can become targets for legal action under FHA regulations, thus making the FHA relevant to local officials...
- Steven G. Rogelberg(Author)
- 2016(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1991 Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1991 Mark V. Roehling Mark V. Roehling Roehling, Mark V. Richard A. Posthuma Richard A. Posthuma Posthuma, Richard A. 172 176 Civil Rights Act of 1964, Civil Rights Act of 1991 Mark V. Roehling Richard A. Posthuma The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a landmark piece of legislation that created the legal basis for nondiscrimination in housing, education, public accommodations, federally assisted programs, and employment. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment based on an individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. This prohibition applies to a wide range of employment actions, including hiring, promotion, training, compensation, disciplinary actions, discharging of employees, and other actions pertaining to the “terms, conditions, or privileges of employment” as set forth in the act. Title VII also makes it unlawful for an employer to take retaliatory action against any individual for opposing employment practices made unlawful by Title VII; filing a discrimination charge; or testifying, assisting, or participating in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under Title VII. The act generally applies to all employers with 15 or more employees; the U.S. government, however, is the most notable exception (federal employees are protected from discrimination by other legislation). Title VII is the single most influential fair employment law in the United States...
eBook - ePubCreating U.S. Democracy: Key Civil Rights Acts, Constitutional Amendments, Supreme Court Decisions & Acts of Foreign Policy (Including Declaration of Independence, Constitution & Bill of Rights)
The Most Important Legal Documents, Established Principles & Crucial Court Cases Which Built the America as We Know It
- U.S. Government, U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Congress(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Madison & Adams Press(Publisher)
...1341] TITLE VIII: Fair Housing Table of Contents SHORT TITLE Sec. 800. This title may be cited as the “Fair Housing Act”. POLICY Sec. 801. It is the policy of the United States to provide, within constitutional limitations, for fair housing throughout the United States. [42 U.S.C. 3601] DEFINITIONS Sec. 802. As used in this title– (a) “Secretary” means the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. (b) “Dwelling” means any building, structure, or portion thereof which is occupied as, or designed or intended for occupancy as, a residence by one or more families, and any vacant land which is offered for sale or lease for the construction or location thereon of any such building, structure, or portion thereof (c) “Family” includes a single individual. (d) “Person” includes one or more individuals, corporations, partnerships, associations, labor organizations, legal representatives, mutual companies, joint-stock companies, trusts, unincorporated organizations, trustees, trustees in cases under title 11 of the United States Code, receivers, and fiduciaries. (e) “To rent” includes to lease, to sublease, to let and otherwise to grant for a consideration the right to occupy premises not owned by the occupant. (f) “Discriminatory housing practice” means an act that is unlawful under section 804, 805, 806, or 818. (g) “State” means any of the several States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any of the territories and possessions of the United States. (h) “Handicap” means, with respect to a person– (1) a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major life activities, (2) a record of having such an impairment, or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment, but such term does not include current, illegal use of or addiction to a controlled substance (as defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C...
