Legacies on the Line

The Civil Rights Movement is multifaceted. It is notable and limited, monumental and meager. Mainstream education often refers to the Civil Rights Movement superficially. The movement forced the United States to recognize its active discrimination by “alleviating” some outright cynical practices through legislation. One of the critical pieces of legislation the movement bore is the Fair Housing Act (1968), 42 U.S.C. 3601 et seq., which is stated to prohibit discrimination by direct providers of housing, such as landlords and real estate companies as well as other entities, like municipalities, banks or other lending institutions and homeowners insurance companies. The discriminatory practices of these entities make housing unavailable to persons because of race or color, sex, religion, national origin, disability, and familial status [14]. Despite this legislation, society still witnesses distinctive discrimination in housing accessibility from housing providers. Disenfranchisement frequently includes sabotage through giving false information about availability, blatant denials disproportionately affecting people of color, as well as specific “screening” mechanisms that blatantly and disproportionately affect people of color [9]. The only divergence in a post-” redlining” society is the country’s forced documented acknowledgment of a racist history [5]. This article will define and explore redlining while demonstrating the link between housing, education, healthcare, and the carceral system. 

 

Redlining is an American term referencing the discriminatory practice involving the systematic denial of minorities to expand into traditionally Anglo-American residential spaces [9]. A government-sponsored corporation created color-coded maps to assess the credibility of mortgage lending in different neighborhoods. These maps graded areas from "A" (green, considered safest) to "D" (red, considered highest risk), with red areas marking predominantly Black and immigrant neighborhoods. Lenders used these maps to deny loans or insurance to residents in redlined areas, which were systematically disinvested. These maps reinforced racial segregation and economic inequality by making it difficult for people in redlined areas, communities of color, to access homeownership and build wealth [8]. Because Black people were recorded as instinctively "hazardous" and "dangerous" through these maps, they were consequently deemed unacceptable neighbors [8]. Redlining includes outright denial of occupancy and financial services like mortgages and insurance. This mode of discrimination was especially prevalent in maintaining the structural neglect and purposeful disenfranchisement of Black Americans’ residential positions in America. 

In Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House and Home of Virginia, Inc. v. Wisely Properties,  the plaintiffs' arguments emphasize how the inequalities within incarceration and policing affect housing. This strategy is sound and significant, however, linking increased incarceration and policing rates to traditional redlining offers an alternative strategy and submits an ill-founded motivation - intentionally or not- to the established approach.

 

Redling is still prevalent today. Contemporarily, economic and racial segregation is evident through observation and recent demographic maps [7]. The historical disenfranchisement of African Americans continues to affect every aspect of life, including the exponentially growing racial wealth gap [13]. The economic crippling directly aids in shaping the disparities within housing outcomes; however, even the most "qualified" African Americans find themselves excluded from traditionally Anglo-American areas [4]. This phenomenon, consequently, affects African Americans in various facets, including but not limited to education, healthcare, and infrastructure quality [6].

Redlining can not be publicized as dismissed many areas redlined throughout the twentieth century are still occupied by the same demographic before the Fair Housing Act with continued neglect [7]. Public education in America is overwhelmingly dependent on property taxes and government funding. These factors are calculated by carefully evaluating demographics, including economic status, family size, projected incomes, race, and ethnicity [7]. This system allows for schools to remain segregated, with intense inequalities amongst school districts and counties, disproportionately affecting Black students. Lack of funding is overwhelmingly experienced by African Americans and other people of color-dominated schools and communities [5]. Similar to education, healthcare also reflects intense disparities that disproportionately impact the Black community. Societal expectations, subconscious narratives, state passivity, and intentional prejudices allowed these disparities to flourish in the post-Civil Rights Movement United States. Today, Black women are three times more likely to die in childbirth than their white counterparts [2]. This example is a direct product of colonial concepts, social structures, and institutions that influence every aspect of life [4].

Similarly, as explored through the following cases, Home of Virginia, Inc..V. Wisely and Multifamily Management Inc., and Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House, discrimination exists in policing and the prison industrial complex. Plaintiffs, Mieles, and The House of Virginia underline this point. Historical, social, and overall contemporary conditions dictating interactions with the criminal justice system primarily negatively impact people of color, particularly Black people. Black Americans are incarcerated (pre and post-conviction) at more than five times the rate of White Americans [11]. Criminal activity is not materially documented across socioeconomic statuses. So, logically, an increased police presence will result in more people being surveilled and arrested in that environment. This model does not claim that crimes aren't occurring elsewhere, but it habitually highlights select scenarios that become the primary focus of policing in America. This dynamic has a close relation to the legacies of redlining because the traditionally and still predominantly Black areas experience heavier policing. For example, while drug use rates are similar across racial groups, Black individuals are nearly four times more likely to be arrested for drug offenses than white individuals [4]. There are countless other instances of racially influenced police encounter discrepancies involving traffic stops, juvenile outcomes, sentencing, and police brutality [12]. This is a fundamental factor that the plaintiffs establish throughout both cases.

 

Although the Fair Housing Act has been legislated, the process of legislation enacting does not always directly translate to its goals, which manifest empirically. Historically, legislation around race has been openly cynical; for instance, Jim Crow, Redlining, Slave Codes, and Black Codes [15]. The state's shift toward considering people of color is reflected through some legal strides. This bore many landmark documents, each with limitations. For example, the Emancipation Proclamation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments are widely understood to have abolished and remedied the horror of slavery. Despite the language, historical context, and celebratory nature, these documents too possessed limitations and were widely contemporarily ignored. As Charles Hamilton Houston once famously said, “Nobody needs to explain to the Negro the difference between the law in books and the law in action” [17]. The terror Black Americans endured despite those amendments ultimately led to the Civil Rights Movement nearly 100 years later. The Civil Rights Movement, too, has limitations, allowing things like redlining legacies, the generational wealth gap, and other injustices to persist [13]. A contemporary example of legislation implementation that does not correlate to practical instances includes multiple federally implemented environmental regulations. While these laws are designed to protect natural resources, they often fail to address the unequal impact they have on marginalized communities. The ignorance of environmental regulations also habitually disproportionately affects people of color. For example, in Africatown, AL; Residents of Africatown have reported that the nearby manufacturing plant emits a white substance into the atmosphere, including the residential, recreational, and educational spaces within Africatown and the greater majority of Black and low-income communities in Mobile, AL. Since the development of the factory, locals have voiced and documented their encounters with disease. The community continues to voice their concerns, and 1,200 residents have sued the plant, alleging it released extremely toxic products directly linked to cancer – into the air, ground, and water in amounts that surpass the regulation limit [3]. These historical and contemporary examples exemplify that passed legislation does not indicate societal satisfaction or acknowledgment. It's imperative readers remember that society is where life exists, not within documents. The following analysis will demonstrate how the Fair Housing Act (1968), 42 U.S.C. 3601 is not an exception. 

The following cases, Home of Virginia, Inc..V. Wisely and Multifamily Management Inc., and Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House illustrate how inseparable various aspects of life are. The cases display how an injustice in one system spills over into others, creating a continuous cycle. The federal Fair Housing Act (1968) prohibits discrimination within housing sales or rental processes. Every court of appeals thus far has interpreted the Act to prohibit policies that have a discriminatory impact, regardless of whether the processes were adopted with discriminatory intent. The Supreme Court, however, has never decided on that question. That said, discriminatory impact standards are both consistent with historical Congressional intent and necessary to address critical and current issues, such as predatory lending, a lending process where the borrower is taken advantage of by the lender,  and discrimination against civilians with a criminal past [6][16].

 

Home of Virginia, Inc.. V. Wisely Properties LLC, and Multifamily Management Services, Inc. 

Complaint Filed 6/4/2019

Home of Virginia, Inc..V. Wisely and Multifamily Management Inc. demonstrates the intense effects of discrimination within the carceral system being translated into housing. Wisely and Multifamily Management Inc. are accused of adhering to a biased process of renter screening at the Sterling Glen Apartments (“Sterling Glen”) in Chesterfield, Virginia. The defendants had policies of automatically excluding civilians with criminal pasts without consideration for the circumstances of conviction. It is argued that this policy is discriminatory and injures Black applicants disproportionately denying them affordable housing [6]. Home of Virginia argues there is a readily available, less discriminatory, and holistic alternative to an automatic blanket ban denying individuals with criminal histories. The plaintiff asserts different approaches for dealing with potential concerns about applicants with a criminal record. One aspect of the screening policy allowed it to automatically ban any conviction pertaining to illegal drugs. In addition, the background search and automatic blanket ban affected individuals who have not been convicted of a crime because it applies charges where adjudication has been withheld or deferred. Home of Virginia goes on to argue that this policy is racially discriminatory and deeply connected to other issues that disenfranchise the Black community like recidivation. The lack of housing upon reentry is among the primary causes of recidivation [6]. The plaintiff continues to list the impact this process has on the incarcerated population as well as the community at large. 

This case ended in a settlement roughly two months after the initial complaint that demanded improvements in recordkeeping, introduction of nondiscrimination training, altering of criminal policies and practices, compensation, mutual releases, and miscellaneous terms. Sterling Glen now conducts and considers a limited background check that only automatically denies what the two parties compromised to make up reasonable possible threats to their neighbors and community [6]. These aspects include “felony criminal convictions related to the following categories of offenses: property offenses, major drug offenses, fraud offenses, major violent offenses against persons, and sex offenses [6].” The updated terms of the policy stated that any other category of offense would not be considered. The form then begins to list more specifically what each of those felony convictions specifically consists of and will be considered relevant in the screening process. The document states these categories were noted because they include conduct that may present a current direct threat of harm to others or the risk of substantial property damage [6]. Additionally, the apartment complex has adopted an extensive ‘individual assessment’ section for the application. All of these efforts aim to dismiss the policy and racial disparity that resulted in Black residents being almost three times more likely than White residents to have a disqualifying record despite otherwise being qualified candidates.

Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House

Complaint Filed 1/31/2024

Similarly to the previous case, Ronald McDonald House of the Greater Hudson Valley (RMH, Westchester, New York) is accused of having discriminatory housing procedures that overwhelmingly affect people of color, specifically Latinx communities, through their self-written and governed, blanket ban on people with a broad range of convictions. Juan Mieles is described as a Latino man and devoted father who sought housing for himself and his family to be with his teenage son during his expected six to twelve-week intensive cancer treatment. Mr. Mieles’s background check showed a 2014 felony assault conviction and RMH expresses that this singular aspect, in combination with their policy, is the reason for his denial [10]. Despite letters of recommendation from incarceration, rehabilitation, and other entities, pleas of severe circumstances concerning Mieles’s son’s deteriorating health, and the length of time since the conviction, Juan Mieles’s family was denied housing. RMH stated their policy does not involve considering any other relevant information or engaging in any individualized assessment. The court documents note that Mr. Mieles and his family lived roughly two and a half hours away, and this decision forced them to travel back and forth from the hospital while Mr. Mieles’s partner was pregnant or with a newborn [10]. Because people of color, Black and Latino alike are disproportionately surveilled, policed, arrested, and convicted this makes them more susceptible to this blanket discrimination. The plaintiff within this case argues the discrimination within the carceral is directly impacting housing discrimination through the guise of application screening. Nearly identical to the last case, the plaintiffs state because of systemic racism in the criminal legal system, Black and Latinx people in the United States are overrepresented in carceral states. In New York State specifically three-quarters of the formerly incarcerated population are Black or Latinx [10]. The plaintiff argues that policies like those implemented by RMH have an outsized harm to communities of color. It is the mission of RMH to provide what they describe as essential services that remove barriers, strengthen families, and promote healing when their children require healthcare. Plaintiffs write that under the Fair Housing Act and the New York State Human Rights Law, policies that have an unjustified and unnecessary discriminatory effect on the basis of race, color, or national origin are unlawful [10]. This matter is ongoing. 

The lawsuits above seek injunctions to force private owners to revise their criminal records policy to conform with anti-discriminatory state and federal housing laws. These implications are significant and induce the legacies of redlining and systemic discrimination that continue to manifest in contemporary American society. Traditional systems including the carceral and home ownership tracts perpetuate cycles of inequality that affect traditionally marginalized communities, particularly the Black community. Despite the landmark legislative advancements made during the Civil Rights Movement, including the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the persistent realities of housing discrimination and socioeconomic disparities underscore the gap between legal frameworks and lived experiences. The cases of Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House and Home of Virginia, Inc. v. Wisely Properties investigate broader ideas of discriminatory practices and reveal how deeply entrenched biases in justice and housing persist today and coincide with one another. 

 

[1] Brown, Descendants, 2022

[2] “Working Together to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality,” CDC, 2024

[3] “Africatown Residents Fight Industrial Pollution,” Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), 2021

[4] Ghandnoosh, Ph.D., and Celeste Barry, "One in Five: Disparities in Crime and Policing," 2023

[5] Hannah-Jones, “Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law,” 2015

[6] “Home of Virginia, Inc.. V. Wisely Properties,LLC and Multifamily Management Services, Inc..,” 2019

[7] “Justice Map - Visualize Race and Income Data for Your Community,” 2024

[8] “Redlining.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, 2022

[9] Massey, “The Legacy of the 1968 Fair Housing Act,” 2015

[10] “Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House,” 2024

[11] "Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP, n.d.

[12] Stanford Open Policing Project, E. Pierson, C. Simoiu, J. Overgoor, S. Corbett-Davies, D. Jenson, A. Shoemaker, V. Ramachandran, P. Barghouty, C. Phillips, R. Shroff, and S. Goel. Policing Data. Stanford University, 2020

[13] The Color of Wealth, Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, n.d.

[14] “The Fair Housing Act,” Civil Rights Division, 2023

[15] “The Slave Trade.” National Archives, U.S. Government, n.d.

[16] Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. "Predatory Lending," n.d.

[17] Levitt, Jeremy I. Hurricane Katrina. University of Nebraska Press, 2009.

 

Works Cited 

Brown, Margaret, director. Descendants. Cinematography by Zachary Manuel and Justin Zweifach, edited by Michael Bloch and Geoffrey Richman, Netflix, 22 Jan. 2022.

CDC. “Working Together to Reduce Black Maternal Mortality.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Women’s Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8 April 2024, www.cdc.gov/womens-health/features/maternal-mortality.html#:~:text=Racial%20Disparities%20Exist,related%20cause%20than%20White%20women. Accessed 18 Oct. 2024. 

Equal Justice Initiative. “Africatown Residents Fight Industrial Pollution.” Equal Justice Initiative, 15 Apr. 2021, www.eji.org/news/africatown-residents-fight-industrial-pollution/. Accessed 22 Oct. 2024.

Ghandnoosh, Nazgol, Ph.D., and Celeste Barry. "One in Five: Disparities in Crime and Policing." The Sentencing Project, 2 Nov. 2023, www.sentencingproject.org/reports/one-in-five-disparities-in-crime-and-policing/. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

Hannah-Jones, Nikole. “Living Apart: How the Government Betrayed a Landmark Civil Rights Law.” Edited by Kirsten Berg, ProPublica, 25 June 2015, www.propublica.org/article/living-apart-how-the-government-betrayed-a-landmark-civil-rights-law.

“Home of Virginia, Inc.. V. Wisely Properties,LLC and Multifamily Management Services, Inc..” American Civil Liberties Union, 3 June 2019, www.aclu.org/cases/home-virginia-inc-v-wisely-propertiesllc-and-multifamily-management-services-inc.

“Justice Map - Visualize Race and Income Data for Your Community.” Justice Map: Visualize Race and Income Data in Your Community, www.justicemap.org/. Accessed 15 Oct. 2024. 

Legal Information Institute. “Redlining.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, Apr. 2022, www.law.cornell.edu/wex/redlining.

Massey, Douglas S. “The Legacy of the 1968 Fair Housing Act.” Sociological Forum (Randolph, N.J.), U.S. National Library of Medicine, June 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4808815/.

“Mieles v. Ronald McDonald House.” American Civil Liberties Union, 31 Jan. 2024, www.aclu.org/cases/mieles-v-ronald-mcdonald-house.

NAACP. "Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." Accessed October 31, 2024. https://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet 

Stanford Open Policing Project, E. Pierson, C. Simoiu, J. Overgoor, S. Corbett-Davies, D. Jenson, A. Shoemaker, V. Ramachandran, P. Barghouty, C. Phillips, R. Shroff, and S. Goel. Policing Data. Stanford University, openpolicing.stanford.edu “A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States”. Nature Human Behaviour, Vol. 4, 2020.

The Color of Wealth, Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy, colorofwealth.org/. Accessed 29 Sep. 2024.

“The Fair Housing Act.” Civil Rights Division, 22 June 2023, www.justice.gov/crt/fair-housing-act-1.

U.S. National Archives. “The Slave Trade.” National Archives, U.S. Government, www.archives.gov/education/lessons/slave-trade.html. Accessed 20 Oct. 2024. 

Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. "Predatory Lending." Accessed November 17, 2024. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/predatory_lending#:~:text=Primary%20tabs,are%20elderly%20or%20low%2Dincome.

Levitt, Jeremy I. Hurricane Katrina. University of Nebraska Press, 2009. https://ezproxy.cul.columbia.edu/login?qurl=https%3a%2f%2fsearch.ebscohost.com%2flogin.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26AuthType%3dip%26db%3de025xna%26AN%3d264678%26site%3dehost-live%26scope%3dsite%26ebv%3DEB%26ppid%3Dpp_183