April’s Fair Housing Month Only Grows in Importance

This month, we celebrate a milestone moment with the 53rd anniversary of the passage of the U.S. Fair Housing Law – Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968.

The COVID-19 pandemic has only reinforced inequities in our community. So, too, high-profile cases of racial and social injustice that made news in the last year and stayed in the news.

Sadly, we realize that fairness is still a work in progress.

But the U.S. Fair Housing Law was one of our country’s larger steps in the right direction.

This law prohibits discrimination based on race, color, sex, religion, national origin, handicap, or familial status and encourages fair housing opportunities for all citizens. The National Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics and, by extension, the Memphis Area Association of REALTORS® Code of Ethics, also provides protection to LGBTQ persons.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the fair housing campaign includes efforts to end housing discrimination and raise awareness about fair housing rights in communities across the country.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) annually proclaims April to be “Fair Housing Month.” We know a huge part of realizing the American Dream is the satisfaction, pride and joy that comes from owning your own home.

The late Dr. Martin Luther King once said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The truth of those words is indisputable.

Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Did you know that means he never saw the fair housing law become a reality? President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act into law just seven days after Dr. King’s death.

In our nation’s history, progress often has been slow and painful. In fact, no one other than white males had property rights up until the Civil Rights Act of 1866 decreed that all persons born in the United States are citizens and have the same rights to real property as white citizens do.

So, Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 remains crucial to our country, vital to, and for, all of us.

For more than a year, the pandemic has provided a powerful reminder that we are all in this together and our shared responsibilities – from washing our hands and practicing social distancing to being committed to equal opportunity for all – really are not optional. Rather, they are essential.

Everyone deserves a fair shot – as has been mandated by law for the last 53 years – to make their American Dream of home ownership come true.