In 1966 the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. moved into the city
of Chicago to address the slum conditions that blacks in Chicago faced. As part of his campaign for open housing
known as the 'Chicago Freedom Movement', Dr. King held rallies around Chicago
that were met with resistance and violence.
These events and the eventual assassination of the civil rights leader
led to the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. This landmark legislation
provided for equal housing opportunities regardless of race, religion, or
national origin and made it a federal crime to "by force or by threat of
force, injure, intimidate, or interfere with anyone … by reason of their race,
color, religion, or national origin."
By expanding on previous acts, the law prohibited discrimination during
the sale, rental or financing of housing and provided federal solutions for
seeking redress.
Beginning in mid-1965 Dr. King was a leader of the Chicago
open housing movement, also known as the Chicago Freedom Movement. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference
(SCLC) and King targeted Chicago because of high levels of what they considered
to be institutionalized discrimination in both housing and schools. Regarding housing, they identified and
combated both discrimination in financing and the rights of tenants. To bring attention to the issues in Chicago,
King moved to an apartment at 1550 S. Hamlin in Chicago's west side. Here, he held a variety of rallies and events
to bring attention to the slum conditions in Chicago. And, on July 10, 1966, the Reverend Martin
Luther King Jr. held a rally at Chicago's Soldier Field where 30,000 people
gathered to hear his speech.
Aside from fair housing, King also called for the registration
of "every negro in Chicago of voting age before the next municipal
election". This was a direct
message to Mayor Daley of Chicago, and to back it up, King set out in march
with thousands of other to City Hall with a set of demands calling for an end
to police brutality and discriminatory real-estate practices. In full view of 36,000 followers, Dr. King
attached his thesis on the metal door of City hall, much like Martin Luther nailed
his 95 thesis to the door of the Catholic church 500 years earlier. Martin Luther's actions led to a massive
revolt of the people demanding reform of the Roman Catholic church. The symbolism of this action could not have
been clearer. The next day, Dr. King
returned to City Hall and presented the demands to the mayor himself. Mayor Daley rejected them on the grounds
that Chicago already had large-scale
program in place to deal with growing slums in Chicago. Mayor Daley of Chicago and Reverend Martin
Luther King were at a standoff. King
warned Daley that he was inviting 'social disaster' if his administration did
not take bold and decisive action.
Daley publicly rejected King's warning, saying that while Dr. King was
sincere, he did not have all the facts.
Privately it seems that he authorized an editorial in the Chicago
Tribune that accused King of engaging in charades to line his own pockets.
A month later, on August 5.
Rev. King led a group of protesters in a march for open housing through
a Marquette Park neighborhood on Chicago's southwest side. As King led the protesters down 63rd street,
they were met by residents waving signs of the American Nazi party and a hail
of rocks, bottles and jeers. King
himself was hit in in the head by a rock thrown by someone in the party. While the violence failed to attract much
press, it did spark a group of businessmen, church leaders and Mayor Daley to
meet with King to sort out an open housing agreement. Yet, despite reaching an agreement, the city
of Chicago failed to keep its word.
Nevertheless, the events in Chicago along with similar campaigns in
California and Milwaukee led Senators like Walter Mondale from Minnesota (Vice
President under Jimmy Carter) to advocate for a bill in Congress.
In early April 1968, the Fair Housing Act was nearing a
vote, but expectations were that even if it passed in the senate, it would surely
fail in the House. Then, on April 4th,
the day of the Senate vote, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was
assassinated in Memphis Tennessee. With
the nation in mourning over Dr. King, and riots in more than 100 cities across
the country, President Lyndon B. Johnson increased pressure on Congress to pass
the Fair Housing Act. President Johnson
had already publicly supported the Act, but the death of Dr. King gave him both
the will and the reason to drive it home as a fitting memorial to one of the
greatest civil rights leaders of all time.
Just three months earlier, Johnson in his 1968 State of the Union
Address, urged Congress to act on several civil rights measures including 'fair
housing'.
"I shall also urge the Congress to act on several other vital pending bills--especially the civil rights measures--fair jury trials, protection of Federal rights, enforcement of equal employment opportunity, and fair housing."President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law on April 11, 1968, one week after King’s death
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union. | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/annual-message-the-congress-the-state-the-union-29 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
En.wikipedia.org. (2019). Civil Rights Act of 1968. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1968 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
HISTORY. (2019). Fair Housing Act. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/fair-housing-act [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
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