Interracial Housing in the United States

A discussion of the signif of movements to break down racial residential restrictions, bring about an open competitive housing market, & effect dispersion of ethnic minorities under sound standard & stable conditions throughout all residential areas. Limitations on this movement are a restricted market, ghetto expansion which is so rapid that it goes beyond any gains in open housing, & public housing which is becoming allminority. Minority families are migrants to the city while whites move to suburbia. Redevelopment projects relocate the primarily nonwhite occupants of the former slum areas into new crowded areas. The federal activity to provide low, & later middle-income housing, &,still later, the Ur redevelopment projects are concerned more with land than the people who occupy it. Housing is not a commodity where the laws of supply & demand should rule, but access to housing should be considered a civil right. The objective should be the right to bargain in an open market. The Fair Housing Practices Bill passed in New York City 30 Dec, 1957, outlaws discrimination in multiple dwellings & in sales developments of 1 & 2 family units in projects of 10 or more. Other cities would need diff legislation where rental dwellings were less numerous. For the first time in New York City's civil rights legislation, strong, organized, & overt resistance existed. Admin'ion of the law places a high priority on an educ'al program. Consumers must realize that the- right to compete carries no special priority & property managers must be assured that sound property rights are to be respected. J. D. Twight.