On the Eve of the 40th Anniversary of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's Assassination, Durbin & Brown pass Senate Resolution Commemorating Landmark Anti-Discrimination Legislation
Press Release
On the eve of the 40th anniversary of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, the Senate passed legislation honoring Dr. King's legacy. U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) announced the passage late last night of their Senate resolution commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act and the 20th anniversary of the Fair Housing Amendments Act. Both pieces of legislation aim to end the practice of discrimination in housing transactions to advance equal opportunity and realize the benefits of housing integration. Other cosponsors of this legislation include Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and George Voinovich (R-OH).
"The Fair Housing Act moved America toward equal opportunity," said Durbin. "More than four decades later we find that enforcement of this law has been narrow and incomplete. Where you live profoundly affects where you work, what you do, where you send your kids to school and whether they grow up healthy and safe. As we honor those who made possible these fair housing laws, we need to remember that it is not enough to pass laws, we must enforce them."
"It is no coincidence that today we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King and all that he stood for as well as the passing of anti-discrimination legislation he worked so hard to secure," Brown said. "It was not only his dream but the combined dreams of million of Americans who yearned for justice and equality. Today, we must recommit ourselves to his dream."
Testing of the compliance with fair housing laws consistently shows a high rate of discrimination in rental, sales, mortgage lending and insurance markets. There are 3.7 million violations of these laws each year against African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Indian Americans. Only one percent of people who believe they are victims of fair housing violations report it to the government. In Chicago, African-American borrowers were 14 times more likely to have a higher-cost loan from some mortgage companies than were white borrowers. In Cleveland, upper-income African Americans were denied home loans 30% of the time while low-income whites were denied only 21% of the time. These patterns repeat across the country.
The Fair Housing Act was included in the Civil Rights Act passed by Congress and then signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on April 11, 1968, one week after the assassination of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. From 1965 to 1967, Dr. King led the Chicago Freedom Movement which raised the national consciousness about housing discrimination and shaped the debate that resulted in this landmark piece of legislation. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in housing and housing-related transactions on the basis of race, color, national origin and religion. The legislation was amended twice; in 1974 to include protection on the basis of sex and in 1988 to include protection on the basis of familial status and disability while expanding the definition of "discriminatory housing practices" to include interference and intimidation.
Source