The ProPublica article Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law detailed the various steps taken in creating effective and fair Housing Policy. I was alarmed at how difficult it was to establish non-discriminatory housing laws as a priority in legislation. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King pushed African American protesters over the edge and resulted in expansive protests that encouraged Congress to pass the 1968 Fair Housing Act.  I found the role of the government in segregating African Americans, and refusing to pass legislation to correct the wrongs they committed to be especially disheartening. The Housing Programs and legislation passed by the New Deal reforms specifically excluded African Americans from the benefits such as mortgages and enabled redlining. Redlining coupled with the discriminatory exclusion of African Americans resulted in the formation of ghettos and reinforced the inequality gap between whites and blacks.

The government also encouraged white flight from cities to suburbs further reinforcing the lack of wealth within African American communities. The American government was responsible for the creation of the system of ghettos that still prevails to this day because of decades of exclusion from the Federal Housing Administration and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson was not able to tackle the pervasive issue of housing. While he was able to put an end to segregation, he was not able to quell the institutional issues segregation within housing created. When Johnson was finally able to pass the Fair Housing Act, it seemed to be a promising first step to tackle the issue of housing. However, the issue of the HUD was that it focused more on writing checks and creating housing rather than enforcing the tenets of the Fair Housing Act. Upon further inspection, it was apparent that states and cities would still receive funding from the HUD even if the Fair Housing Act was violated.  The insurmountable battle to right the wrongs of the early discriminatory housing legislation seems to be neverending. I wonder how the outcome of housing would be different today if policies such as redlining and redistricting did not have the detrimental effect it had.