[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 163 (Thursday, October 27, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1953-E1954]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      INTRODUCTION OF THE FAIR HOUSING MEMORIAL AUTHORIZATION ACT

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                       HON. ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON

                      of the district of columbia

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 27, 2011

  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, today I introduce, together with the co-
sponsor Representative Ken Calvert, the Fair Housing Memorial 
Authorization Act, to commemorate the accomplishments of the fair 
housing movement

[[Page E1954]]

in the United States with a memorial on federal land in the nation's 
capital. The bipartisan bill authorizes the Fair Housing Commemorative 
Foundation, established by the National Association of Realtors, to 
raise funds to build the memorial in accordance with the Commemorative 
Works Act. No federal funds could be used for the memorial. This may be 
the first time that a sector of our economy has decided to establish a 
memorial commemorating a movement that led to the enactment of statutes 
that regulate some of its practices. The foundation's precedent is 
commendable.
  Fair housing and the movement to bring equal opportunity in the real 
estate markets are intertwined with our nation's history. The federal 
government has both been a part of the problem and an integral part of 
the solution, and every branch of the federal government has played a 
key role in our nation's progress towards fair housing. It is, 
therefore, fitting that we commemorate the fair housing movement's 
efforts to achieve equal opportunity in housing.
  The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution establishes a right to own 
private property that the government cannot take without just 
compensation. Early immigrants sought a place where they could own and 
transfer real estate without the arbitrary interference of the 
government. That right, however, was not universal. Slavery denied 
basic rights to a whole class of Americans based on their race, and 
reduced many African Americans to the status of property. Among other 
things, slaves were denied the right to own and use real property.
  The Civil War and the constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery 
were accompanied by laws that gave all citizens the same rights to own 
and use real property. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 was our nation's 
first ``fair housing'' law, but that law was ignored and severely 
limited by court decisions, culminating with the philosophy of 
``separate but equal'' in the U.S. Supreme Court Plessey v. Ferguson 
decision. In addition, Congress and some states passed laws that 
restricted private property ownership and use by Latinos and Asian 
Americans. In the early 20th century, social scientists and leaders 
within the real estate community established guides for neighborhood 
desirability based on racial composition. Homogeneous neighborhoods of 
whites from northern European backgrounds were seen as the best 
investment for homeowners and others. Some early zoning laws sought to 
limit, by race, the people who could live in certain communities, as 
did some practices of the real estate industry. Although the U.S. 
Supreme Court, in its 1917 Buchanan v. Worley decision, struck down 
these racial restrictions, racial bias formed the basis for many 
restrictive covenants on real estate.
  Following the World War II, returning GIs, through the GI Bill, were 
offered a path to homeownership. African Americans and other 
minorities, however, could not take advantage of these benefits in many 
communities. The great migration of the middle class to suburbs created 
segregated white suburbs and large isolated urban minority communities. 
There was little response by the federal government or the courts 
until, most notably, the 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. 
Kraemer ended judicial enforcement of racially restrictive covenants. 
The Civil Rights Movement, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s work 
in Chicago, brought renewed attention to housing discrimination. The 
federal government, first through executive order and then through the 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, banned discrimination in federally funded 
housing. By 1961, seventeen states had passed fair or open housing 
laws. However, it was not until April 1968, following the assassination 
of Dr. King, that Congress passed the Fair Housing Act.
  Also in April 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Jones v. Mayer, held 
that the Civil Rights Act of 1866 prohibited discrimination in private 
real estate transactions. The Court noted that the law, which lacked an 
effective government enforcement mechanism, covered racial and 
religious discrimination. The federal government banned gender 
discrimination in housing in 1974, during the height of the Women's 
Rights Movement. And in 1988, in response to growing awareness of the 
housing issues faced the disabled, Congress amended the Fair Housing 
Act to protect the disabled.
  A memorial to the fair housing movement would celebrate the distance 
the nation has come to achieve fair housing and would remind us of the 
distance we still have to travel.
  Mr. Speaker, in light of this long battle for fair housing, I ask the 
House to pass this bill.

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