Congress banned discrimination in employment in 1964, and in voting in 1965. But when it came to housing, there was resistance, even though government policies helped create segregated neighborhoods in the first place.
But a tragic event in April 1968 created a new urgency to act. Seven days after King’s assassination, The Fair Housing Act was signed into law. It banned deliberate housing discrimination and obligated the government to reduce the segregation that had isolated blacks, often in vast urban housing projects.
However, decades after the Fair Housing Act was passed, many cities still remain starkly divided by race.
During the Obama administration, communities receiving federal housing funds were ordered to draft desegregation plans or risk the loss of billions of dollars. But President Trump’s Housing Secretary Ben Carson has suspended those rules until at least 2024.