I join our nation and the rest of the world in sadness and disappointment over the murder of George Floyd and the continued failures of our system to redress racial inequities. African Americans have, for centuries, faced marginalization from every corner of the public sphere created to provide freedom and equality to all. Unfortunately, the real estate industry that builds the foundation for wealth through home-ownership has contributed to this systemic repression for far too long.
The Black Lives Matter Movement has, in many ways, shown a growing solidarity among the people of our country and around the world. Data show that 54% of protest participants are white activists and polls show majority support for the cause. These findings provide hope that the issues at the heart of the movement stem not from the people of our country but from the systemic problems we the people still face as a country.
The History
Africans were brought here from across the Atlantic as enslaved people in 1619 – before our nation was even a nation – and the system of enslavement lasted for nearly 250 years, being granted freedom only 155 years ago. That document which described the founders’ vision for our country, The Declaration of Independence, sets the guiding principles at our foundation:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Though many of the founding fathers believed strongly in the abolition of slavery, economic prosperity was deemed too dependent on the institution and they felt it too difficult to foster the unified support necessary to fight Great Britain. So when the colonies declared their freedom in 1776, African Americans were not granted theirs. They would have to wait until June 19, 1865 to celebrate their “Juneteenth” Independence Day, two and a half years after Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation.
After the long and bloody civil war General William T Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, both abolitionists, held an unprecedented meeting with 20 leaders of the black community in Savannah, GA. Sherman said of the meeting: “for the first time in the history of this nation, the representatives of the government had gone to these poor debased people to ask them what they wanted for themselves.” The emphatic answer from Rev. Frazier? Land! They all knew the importance of owning real property to establish and preserve wealth. The concept of reparations was born with "40 Acres and a Mule."
"The way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land, and turn it and till it by our own labor … and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare … We want to be placed on land until we are able to buy it and make it our own."
The excitement was immense, though, unfortunately short lived. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Southern sympathizer, gained power and immediately overturned the order and gave the land back to those slaveholders who had declared war on the United States. Thus started the era of "Jim Crow."
From the time of Lincoln's assassination on April 15, 1865 until the signing of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, African Americans were denied the ability to generate wealth through property ownership by policies of redlining, steering, and blockbusting. From a June article from REALTOR® Magazine:
"Nate Johnson, the National Association of REALTORS®’ public and federal issues liaison, says that when he was growing up, his parents didn’t own their own home. And as his father, who is Black, was coming of age, it was still legal to deny him housing and other opportunities. 'I do realize that the wheels of justice turn slowly,' he said during NAR’s Broker Power Hour webinar on June 12. 'The challenges we face today are born through policies, and we have to take ownership of this. This plays a role in the peaceful protests and the tragic expressions of destruction that we have been seeing in our communities all over the country.'”
The Fair Housing Act of 1968 made great progress toward addressing some of the issues of housing inequality in black communities; however, racist business practices persist today. During a three year investigation, Newsday sent out undercover testers to discover potential Fair Housing violations. They found unfair treatment 49% of the time with Black testers, 39% with Hispanic testers, and 19% with Asian testers.
The Consequences
The wealth gap between black and white households is as wide as it was in 1968. The median white family has $171,000 of established wealth compared to only $17,600 for black families - nearly 10x less - and almost 19% of black households have zero to negative wealth compared to only 9% in white households.
Housing policies contributed to this economic inequality perhaps more than any other factor. "Redlining" refers to the practice of withholding mortgage capital from minority neighborhoods by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) - established by National Housing Act of 1934. They looked at 239 cities and created a color-coded map based largely on racial demographics. Green districts were considered the most desirable for lending. Blue - "still desirable." Yellow - "Declining" Red districts - typically in the center of cities and black - were considered hazardous and risky for mortgage capital. These maps were used by public and private entities to deny loans to African Americans. Though these practices were banned by the Fair Housing act, 3 out of 4 "redlined" neighborhoods still struggle today.
Income inequality combined with redlining to devastating effect, limiting African Americans the fundamental wealth generator of home ownership. This is not a short-term loss. Generational economic mobility is directly tied to owning property and having something to pass down to your children. Upward mobility is also dependent on growing up in a safe and prosperous environment. Another banned practice of steering minorities away from wealthier neighborhoods has exacerbated the problem. The Urban Institute found:
"A growing body of evidence argues that growing up in a disinvested community, where crime and violence are commonplace and public schools are ineffective, undermines a child’s long-term life-chances, other things being equal. When rent consumes an inordinate share of a family’s budget, food, healthcare, and educational expenditures suffer. When families have to move unexpectedly because of eviction or foreclosure, the instability threatens their children’s health and development. When households can’t qualify for mortgage financing, their prospects for building wealth are diminished."
The Solution
The Black Lives Matter Movement has brought these issues to the fore and even before the brutal murder of George Floyd, changes began. In response to growing evidence that problems persist, the National Association of REALTORS® unanimously passed a Fair Housing Action Plan in January. The Accountability, Culture Change, and Training Initiative (ACT) will ensure America’s 1.4 million REALTORS® are doing everything possible to protect housing rights in America.
As REALTORS®, we have great capacity to help improve the situation of black lives in America. I pledge to use all of the resources at my disposal to help provide equal opportunity to all people and to use my platform to bring light to any issues that face my brothers and sisters. Speak truth to power.