National Context
Practiced by individuals and codified by laws and policies, housing discrimination shaped every American community for over a century.
Courtesy of the Naperville Heritage Society
1Introduction
![Print shows bird's-eye view of a new home in the country, with formal and vegetable gardens, carriage house, windmill, and farm animals.]()
2Segregation Mania
![A Black man drinking from a water cooler marked “Colored” in a streetcar terminal in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.]()
3Immigration, Migration, Discrimination
![View into the yard of a tenement housing complex in New York. NY.]()
4Sundown Towns, the KKK, and the Ever-Present Threat of White Violence
![Robed and hooded Klan members hold signs and the American flag. Signs say: “We stand for law and order;” “Muncie Klan No. 4;” “Do not follow in the name of the KKK.” Written on image: “Who's who” and “K-2.”]()
5Discriminatory Zoning
![A zoning plan map of Euclid, Ohio.]()
6Racially Restrictive Covenants
![A J.C. Nichols Company real estate sign in Kansas City, Missouri reads: “1000 Acres Restricted;" “Country Club District;” “Highly Developed and Protected Residence Property;” “Water, Light, Gas, Etc. Attractive Prices."]()
7Discrimination and the Suburban Boom
![A World War II-era poster alerting veterans buying property or starting a business to contact the Veterans Administration to learn about guaranteed loans.]()
8Shady Real Estate Practices
![This sign outside of Sunkist Gardens in Los Angeles broadcast that the development was targeted to White veterans. Black veterans would be told that this was a restricted neighborhood.]()
9Driving While Black
![Collage of pages from The Green Book, an annual guidebook for African-American roadtrippers founded and published by New York City mailman Victor Hugo Green from 1936 to 1967.]()
10The New Deal: Government-Sponsored Segregation
![A Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) map of Seattle, WA.]()
11Living and Losing in the City
![Aerial view of the Cabrini-Green public housing developments in Chicago, IL.]()
12Taking to the Streets
![Members of the NAACP’s Housing Committee create signs in the offices of the Detroit Branch for use in a future demonstration.]()
13The Power of Law
![President Lyndon B. Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr., Clarence Mitchell, and Patricia Roberts Harris.]()
14Did anyone win the fight for fair housing?
![Fair housing protest, Seattle, Washington, 1964. Confronting racial discrimination in housing sales. CORE-sponsored demonstration at realtor office of Picture Floor Plans, Inc.]()
15Who deserves to own a home?
![Advertising poster announcing sale of residential lots in "University Park" in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, showing a bird's-eye view of Allegheny with the Allegheny River on the right and Pittsburgh across the river, in the background.]()
16What kind of place will you call home?
![Image of Kleina House Painting]()
