Housing discrimination rages on — in outright violation of federal law: report

03 June 2024

Fifty-six years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which included Titles 8 and 9.

Commonly known known as the Fair Housing Act, Titles 8 and 9 expanded elements of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. The Fair Housing Act prohibits housing discrimination when homes are sold.

But in an article published on June 3, New York Times reporter Debra Kamin details an example of overt housing discrimination that occurred in 2024.

Dr. Raven Baxter, a molecular biologist, was hoping to purchase a condo in Virginia Beach, Virginia that was going for $749,000. Baxter, according to Kamin, had made a down payment, but the seller wanted to pull out of the deal because she is Black.

Baxter, Kamin reports, has responded by contacting a civil rights attorney addition to filing a discrimination claim with the Virginia Fair Housing Office and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The case received a great deal of attention after Baxter wrote about it on X, formerly Twitter.

Baxter told the Times, "Had I not gone to Twitter and received help from people who knew what they were doing, I would have been panicking the entire weekend. It was my first time buying a house. I knew my civil rights were being violated. I knew that something illegal was happening, but no one knew what to do."

The molecular biologist says she was shocked after learning why the sale had fallen through.

Gamble told the Times, "I kind of fell back in my chair. I could not believe what I was hearing. Well after the Civil Rights movement, after COVID, after George Floyd, you would think society isn't still thinking this way. But in 2024, they still are."

According to Kamin, "Dr. Baxter's home sale remains set to close later this summer."

"But even if the deal goes through," the Times reporter explains, "her rights under the Fair Housing Act have still been potentially violated, said Brenda Castañeda, deputy director of advocacy for HOME of VA, a nonprofit that assists Virginians who believe they have experienced housing discrimination. Real estate agents are required by law to not discriminate, which means they must inform sellers who insist on acting with prejudice that they will not represent them, and extricate themselves from a sale if the seller will not acquiesce."

The New York Times' full article is available at this link (subscription required).

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